Hello,

A friend of mine wants to have a tattoo with a cool Japanese saying. Because he knows I can read Japanese, he wants me to help find one so that he doesn't get something random tattoed on him.
So if anyone has any good ideas, please mention them. Knowing my friend, he would like it if the saying contains complicated kanji (so not too many hiragana).
Person with the best saying gets a cookie

hotkiller123 Wrote:Hello,

A friend of mine wants to have a tattoo with a cool Japanese saying. Because he knows I can read Japanese, he wants me to help find one so that he doesn't get something random tattoed on him.
So if anyone has any good ideas, please mention them. Knowing my friend, he would like it if the saying contains complicated kanji (so not too many hiragana).
Person with the best saying gets a cookie

外人

Check out some Yoji Jukugo (can't type japanese at work...) and see if he likes any of them.

Jakunikukyoushoku anyone? Eh? Eh?

Perfect!

sethg Wrote:Check out some Yoji Jukugo (can't type japanese at work...) and see if he likes any of them.

Jakunikukyoushoku anyone? Eh? Eh?

Funny I actually also first thought of 弱肉強食　but my friend wanted something longer.

edit: You must also be using/used KO2001

bflatnine Wrote:外人

or if you want it to be longer you could aways write 馬鹿な外人.
now, seriously, why would he want to do that? i'd understand if, say, your friend spent the last four years learning japanese, and has achieved (his version of) fluency, in which case the tattoo would commemorate something meaningful in his life. otherwise, he might as well tattoo the word "weaboo" across his forehead, which would be equally un-meaningful.
tattoos are permanent, people!

So let me get this straight... your friend wants a saying in a language he doesn't understand and suggested by random strangers from the internet permanently written on his skin?

Codexus Wrote:So let me get this straight... your friend wants a saying in a language he doesn't understand and suggested by random strangers from the internet permanently written on his skin?

I'm not a random stranger and I can understand. Besides, I'm not asking if it's stupid or not since I'm against it too. But I'd rather want that he has a good tattoo than a really random one since I'm his friend.

maybe you can buy him a nice book that he can choose from..

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-1-000-C...347&sr=8-1


..and then you can render the lettering for him (since the ones in the book look like something someone scratched down real quick while talking on the phone)

(also, maybe he can get it in Henna ink first to see if he really wants it 永遠に)

hotkiller123 Wrote:

sethg Wrote:Check out some Yoji Jukugo (can't type japanese at work...) and see if he likes any of them.

Jakunikukyoushoku anyone? Eh? Eh?

Funny I actually also first thought of 弱肉強食　but my friend wanted something longer.

How about 万国博覧会?　Or maybe 大学生就職内定率, this one was on the news all day.

First thing you should do is show him some of the T-Shirts some Japanese like to wear around Tokyo. You know, the ones with "Love time hard without togetherness" or some such. Then explain to him that any kanji tattoo he gets will likely be of that caliber to anyone that understands Japanese (or Chinese in some cases).

Barring that, if he'd like a cool Japanese saying, perhaps get some 4 character proverbs. Things like
いちごいちえ【一期一会】
いっせきにちょう【一石二鳥】
しゅんかしゅうとう【春夏秋冬】
So that the meaning at least makes sense in the actual language. Not sure what proverb qualifies as cool though.

Definitely better than the poor sap on base that had 強い (the word) compressed to look like a single kanji and had ANOTHER 強 kanji upside down. I should have taken a picture cause it was funny. On top of that, the other kanji he had were probably picked solely off the Heisig or Kanjidic meanings. An all too common tale.

I have my sleeves tattooed and have been into getting tattooed for about 10 years. Getting plain old kanji tattooed is pretty much a bad idea. Most people who are serious about tattoos, even tattoo artists make fun of people that get kanji tattoos. Especially if the person doesn't know enough about kanji to read it themselves, I would highly recommend thinking of something else. If they want to get tattooed they should be researching themselves, as it will be on their body for life.

Find a good custom shop, look at tons of art history books or just art books if it's modern until you find styles you like. Then come up with an original idea and have the artist draw you up a picture. I don't recommend going to walk in shops and picking a piece of flash off the wall. Also before choosing an artist try to talk to people you see with lots of tattoos and ask them what the good shops in town are. Look at the artists portfolio and don't necessarily judge what pictures they tattooed but the style and quality of those pictures. Check and see if their line work is sharp, if they blend colour well, if they use lots of different line thicknesses, etc.

But if they want kanji then that is their choice, I would still recommend going to a quality shop though. It will cost more, but I'd rather have something that doesn't look like a black blob in 5 years.

原子力発電所 or 著作権侵害

My favorite was the girl I saw in a club in Australia who had 奇 tattooed on her back. I had to ask her why she had it- she said "it means mysterious." If we go by Heisig it means strange

I saw someone with 大犬 on their arm (is that even a word?) Perhaps take a look at hanzismatter first.

弱智面無表情

Anyone getting a tattoo is both.

my cousin Ivan got a Japanese tattoo on his arm from "an asian guy" so it must be spelled right, right? i looked at it... it says イーワン lmao

dbh2ppa Wrote:

bflatnine Wrote:外人

or if you want it to be longer you could aways write 馬鹿な外人.

Good story about this one too- my friends were drunk in Tokyo one time and they said they were running around yelling 馬鹿の外人！ A "nice" Japanese person stopped and said "馬鹿な外人."

Haha that is so funny!
＾＿＿＾

I would recomend,"この和文を読めれば、おめでとうございます".

夏炉冬扇 is the most apropos kanji tatto I can imagine.

The result of countless hours of toil in MS Paint (and ripping off a Toothpastefordinner comic)

captal Wrote:My favorite was the girl I saw in a club in Australia who had 奇 tattooed on her back. I had to ask her why she had it- she said "it means mysterious." If we go by Heisig it means strange

Some girl at my university sports a nifty "乱" tattoo. I'm afraid she might actually know what it means... never dared to ask.

rofl @ flow chart and lol @ 夏炉冬扇

[Katsuo]

hotkiller123 Wrote:A friend of mine wants to have a tattoo with a cool Japanese saying... he would like it if the saying contains complicated kanji (so not too many hiragana)... I actually also first thought of 弱肉強食　but my friend wanted something longer.

Here's 300 Japanese proverbs, originally from Nakayama Yukio's website. Perhaps your friend could choose a few that appeal from the English meaning, and then decide on one from the appearance of the Japanese text.

Before proceeding it might be an idea to look through the Hanzi Smatter website, which is well known for its critical look at garbled text used in tattoos (though I'm more struck by the visual ugliness of most efforts). Perhaps 木に竹を接ぐ written in cursive style might look good.

Edit: Updated broken link.

http://www.bme.com/tattoo/A91005/high/jdfs-new.jpg

Education FTW.