How To Avoid Japanese Tattoo Mistakes

A frequent worry faced by all customers of tattoo artists getting Japanese tattoos is what they are going to get is not what they asked for. Yes, it happens often that the Japanese meaning of the kanji symbols in the tattoo has a completely different meaning from what one had asked their tattoo artist for in English. There are a number of reasons. Let's see why these mistakes happen and ways to make sure it doesn't happen to you.

The main reason for this error is that the Japanese tattoo artist lacks proficiency in English and Japanese . There are many tattoo artists who are proficient in tattooing but not in writing kanji. Sometimes the Japanese tattoo artist is not proficient in both languages, Japanese and English. It could also be that they are not able to understand the exact meaning of your English phrase and have transferred it differently into kanji.

There are also times where the strokes are wrong in representing them in kanji which results in a completely different meaning. We have also heard of some cases where the tattoo artist acts unprofessionally, and used the wrong kanji symbols on their clients because they didn't like their clients attitude towards Japanese culture or tattoos.

Whatever the reasons are, how reasonable they are, none of us would be willing for such mistakes to sit permanently on our body forever. There are several ways we could avoid being the victim of such mistakes. After all we know that prevention is always better than the cure. The first thing we should do is to research a lot about the kanji symbols and strokes. The internet is the best first hand easily accessible source for such information. The second tip would be to approach a professional language translator.

It could cost some money but it saves your time and money that you spend after you understand it did not communicate the meaning you wanted it to mean. Using a professional may not be in our budget, as we are already planning to spend a good amount on Japanese tattoo kanji symbols. If you do not have a budget to hire a professional interpreter, then it is good to approach some professors or students from schools that provide Japanese language courses. If you have a friend or colleague who is a native Japanese speaker, you could even approach them to confirm the meaning of the kanji before getting it on your body as a permanent tattoo. These are some suggestions on ways to avoid the common problems with getting Japanese tattoos and will hopefully save your time, money, and energy.