Chinese calligraphy tattoos

Chinese calligraphy tattoos are tattoos of Chinese characters in a calligraphic style. Today, Chinese calligraphy tattoos can be found worldwide.

Cursive Chinese calligraphy
Tattoo of Chinese characters 兄弟名誉 (xiōngdì míngyù, "honorable brotherhood")

Calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy is the stylized, artistic writing of Chinese characters; the written form of Chinese that unites the languages spoken in China. Calligraphy is considered supreme among the visual arts in China and sets the standard for which Chinese painting is judged. Chinese calligraphy and painting are closely related.[1]

History

In pre-modern China, textual tattoos were used as a punishment for criminals. Criminals would get textual tattoos on their cheeks and foreheads of the crime that they committed and would therefore have their crime on display for the rest of their lives.[2]

Tattoos of Chinese characters and Japanese kanji are common in the modern Western world; often the characters used are ungrammatical, meaningless or incorrectly drawn, as neither the tattooist nor the recipient understand the languages in question and merely choose the characters based on their aesthetic appearance.[3][4][5][6][7]

See also

References
  1. Yee, Chiang (2014). "Chinese Calligraphy". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. Lei, Daphne (2009). "The Blood - Stained Text in Translation: Tattooing, Bodily Writing, and Performance of Chinese Virtue". Anthropological Quarterly. 82 (1): 99–127. doi:10.1353/anq.0.0044. S2CID 144291158.
  3. Schirmer, Dominique; Saalmann, Gernot; Kessler, Christl (16 April 2006). Hybridising East and West: Tales Beyond Westernisation : Empirical Contributions to the Debates on Hybridity. Lit. ISBN 9783825801557 – via Google Books.
  4. "Chinese Alphabet Nonsense | East Asia Student". eastasiastudent.net.
  5. B, A. "Stupid Chinese Character Tattoos That Make No Sense".
  6. "30 People Fluent In Chinese/Japanese Share The Worst Tattoos They've Seen".
  7. DeMello, Margo (30 May 2014). Inked: Tattoos and Body Art around the World [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610690768 – via Google Books.
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