Tattoos comprised of Chinese, Korean or Japanese are extremely popular. All the celebrities have them from NBA players to movie stars. While it is undeniable that classic Chinese characters have a universal beauty which can easily be appreciated regardless of whether one can understand the often subtle meanings conveyed by the ancient designs, some Westerners have permanently embossed their bodies with symbols that are at times oddly nonsensical and at other times are bizarrely meaningless.

The aesthetic appeal of flowing Chinese calligraphy is easy to understand. "Mom" in Chinese undoubtedly adds a certain intellectualism to this archetypically simple tattoo. Chinese tattoos are a more clever way to express your message.

• Don't transliterate your name. In other words don't do a pure phonetic translation of your western name.Western names can sometimes not be translated well into Chinese. If you want your name in Chinese, do what the Chinese often do and adopt a real Chinese name.
• Consult a native speaker. This will obviously be necessary to get a Chinese name, but should be a required step in getting a Chinese tattoo no matter what. Most universities should have an international population and it should be possible to find a native speaker.
• Get a real Chinese idiom. Chinese is full of four-character idioms that very beautifully/humorously/cleverly convey just about any concept. Some (many?) Chinese idioms are awkward in English, but they sound great in Chinese. This can be challenging since it would be best to know the translation, the transliteration and the pronunciation in Chinese.
• Know what writing system the words are written in. Chinese, Japanese and Korean language all have multiple writing systems. In Chinese there are Traditional and Simplified forms. The Simplified form was develop to make Chinese characters less complicated however, the more formal and traditional writings still use Traditional. At Green Dragon Arts we write in Traditional unless our customer desires other wise. For more info on the different forms of writings in Asia see our FAQ.
• Translation is difficult - You may have a difficult phrase in English that you want to have written in Chinese calligraphy. Some English phrases do not translate well into Chinese. Translation of the meaning is very subjective and the final tattoo art may not have the meaning you had in mind. At Green Dragon Arts we will alway do out best to provide an accurate translation but we can't guarantee you the phrase you provided in English will be translate into Chinese that has the same or similar meaning. It is always best to start with a Chinese phrase. All of our calligraphies in our catalog are Chinese accurate.
• Becareful of the Uglies - I have seen many tattoos of Chinese calligraphy that is just ugly. It may look nice to the western eye but remember Chinese calligraphy is an art form and there are standards of what is considered well written calligraphy. If unsure find someone who knows about Chinese calligarphy and ask. DO NOT use Chinese generated from computer fonts. While some computer fonts looks better than some of the poorly written calligraphies that I have seen in some tattoo shops, they look like computer fonts and not art.

3/28/08