The Popularity of Kanji Tattoos


Kanji tattoos are based on Japanese writing system called kanji which is one of the forms of writing in Japan. It actually came from China thousands of years ago when Japan had no form of writing. Since Japanese is very different from Chinese, they developed another sets of alphabet called "kana" in the form of hiragana and katakana, each standing for a syllable rather than a separate consonant or vowel.

Kanji on the other hand, are ideograms which have characters with their own meaning and correspond to a word. The characters are stand alone and can be combined with other characters to create more words. This makes kanji tattoo very popular since it can make a statement of its own while maintaining discrete meaning and not obvious messages. Some people use kanji characters to convert the name of their significant others and have it tattooed on them.

Kanji characters are composed of beautiful strokes of different lines which are bound within an imaginary square and represent objects or actions. They are complicated and difficult yet beautiful and fascinating. They are believed to have spiritual effect on the mind of the reader. They are favored a lot by tattoo enthusiasts because of their artistic values. They are usually use to communicate character, values or beliefs like "strength", "laughter" etc.

Kanji tattoos can be frequently found in combination with other symbols that are also of Japanese origin. The kanji characters are being used to accentuate and play up with tattoo images like cherry blossoms, koi and geisha. Even the designs that does not relate at all to Japan are also being blended with kanji characters. This is a great alternative from the obvious English words so as to create some sort of mystery.

Kanji tattoos are complex and hard to understand. Make sure that you have the right characters when deciding to have it inked on you. Tattoos are permanent so it can be very frustrating if you ended up with a kanji tattoo does not contain the message that you want to convey.

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