How to write your name in JapaneseNowadays, just as we, Japanese people, love to use English symbols or phrase on T-shirt, Logo or jewely design, Westerners start to use Japanese Kanji Symbols for their own design needs as well.
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Your tattoo is going to be around for a very long time so unless want to pay ten times the cost of the original tattoo to have it removed it is crucial you consult someone who is fluent in both languages. Although bad tattoos can be modified to become a completely new tattoo and many tattoo artists have even become experts at effectively turning badly drawn tattoos done by inexperienced tattoo artists or ’scratchers’ into works of art.
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Francis winced in pain as the needle jabbed in and out of her arm, guided with meticulous details by tattoo artist Gus. He was tattooing the Japanese symbol for protection on her right shoulder, so, as Francis explained, she always had someone ‘watching her back’. Francis did not want to elaborate, mysteriously hinting at a rogue past. Obviously, I persisted; there is more to the story. Why make an obvious statement if you don’t want to talk about it? ‘It’s personal’, she replied, ‘let’s just say it is what it is. My protection.’ Not an uncommon response according to Gus, who says that the symbolism of tattooing is becoming more and more obscure. More than half of Gus’s clients have Japanese character designs in mind, and usually as their first tattoo. And, he says, it is the appeal of the exotic, and superstition that leads them there. ‘The days of mum and heart are just about gone,’ he says from his busy tattoo studio. ‘I swear half of my clients think they are the last samurai!’
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Thinking of getting a kanji tattoo or kanji jewelry? Then arm yourself with this information before you buy anything. It may be the difference between being cool and national humiliation.

What? National humiliation? Well OK, national humiliation is an unlikely outcome, but an article in the March 1st, 2005 Washington Post Express shows that the possibility is there. “Lost in Translation” looked at the real dangers facing the unwary consumers who get kanji tattoos.
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Q: What do famous celebrities like Pink, Britney Spears and the Spice Girls’ Mel C all have in common?

A: They all have Japanese tattoos!

Japanese tattoos are cool. Of course, if you have money to burn like any of these ladies, you can afford to hire a professional translator to pick out the perfect character combination. But if personal translation is out of your league how can you avoid becoming a kanji fashion victim and get stuck with a tattoo you will really regret?
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