3 Chinese Tattoo Characters - A Matter of Symbol Placement

Regina sent in this Chinese tattoo confirmation with the message and attachment below:

"My tattoo is 3 characters long. The first character is supposed to be eternal, the second one is supposed to be love and the third one is supposed to be happiness. Mine is between my shoulder baldes and my husband has a matching one on his stomach."

Hi Regina,

Individually they do mean what you mentioned. I say "individually" because of the positioning of the three words - which when read in Chinese sounds directly translated from English (it's not authentic to have 3 words next to each other that are not part of the same phrase). But this is a common error with Chinese tattoos -- and most often non-speakers get them as personal reminders. And I bet that no Chinese person will ever say "that's wrong".

The word "eternal" is more commonly seen with 2 characters.

But the good news is, none of the characters themselves are wrong. Although, on the word "happiness", I'd suggest that you go back to the parlor and add a dot - like the second character on http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/blcc_happiness.htm . It's probably the font and the drawing of the design that made it disappear. But without the dot, the character is technically incorrect (i.e. kind of like spelling the English word "happiness" with one p).

Steel or Iron?

Travis sent the following with a picture of his tattoo attached:

"My tattoo is located on my arm. When I was in the store they told me the symbol means "steel". The book I got it out of says the same but I looked up the symbol for steel and its not the same symbol. This is my only tattoo."

Hi Travis,

This is the simplified Chinese character of the word "iron". By itself I would probably not stretch it as far as "steel" - as steel is a byproduct of iron, and the word "steel" consists of one more characters.

The reason you see a different character is most likely because traditional Chinese characters are more commonly used in books outside of China (simplified Chinese is used in the People's Republic of China implemented as part of the pre-revolution (around 1950's), while Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most overseas Chinese communities continue to use traditional Chinese, which dates back much longer).

Love - Mirror-Imaged

Sabrina sent me this Chinese tattoo confirmation with the following:

"Meaning - Love.
Tattoo is on my wrist and not near any others."

Hi Sabrina,

This appears to be a mirror-imaged version of the character for "love". Although it would be understood by most, it is not correct in Kanji nor in Chinese. (i.e. imagine the English word "love" but spelled backwards and the letter "e" mirror imaged).

* If your camera/computer happened to mirror the image, and the tattoo is actually the reverse of the image you sent, then you're okay.

To avoid getting a mirror-imaged Chinese tattoo, it's a good idea to consult a native Chinese speaker beforehand, or even ask at your local Chinese restaurant. Many Chinese people would be happy to help, provided that you have done your homework and are on the right track.

Chinese Tattoo Meaning: Victory or Triumph?

Marty sent me a tattoo confirmation question with the following picture:

"The tattoo is on my back and I have no Idea what it means. Any help would be appreciated."

This was the first correspondence.

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Hi Marty,

The tattoo reads "victory" in Chinese - correctly written, no mistakes at all.

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I later received a follow-up from Marty: "I was also told that it reads triumph. I there any truth to that?"

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Hi Marty,

The word "victory" in English is nearly synonymous with "triumph". So yes, there would be truth to that. Note that, much like English, the Chinese language consists of synonyms. That said, the word can also be translated to "win" or "success".

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