Tattoo Symbols From Ancient China

By John Chan

The timeless aesthetic appeal of Chinese tattoo symbols is the reason why their popularity continues to grow even today. The west has developed a new found interest with Chinese tattoo symbols even though the many people are unaware of their meanings.

The exotic symbols are so aesthetically appealing by themselves that people have used them for tattoos without even knowing what they stand for. This phenomenon is a common practice in the west. The youth, inspired by the television media seeks to get interesting Chinese tattoo symbols stamped on their body for life.

You should take care before you get a Chinese symbol engraved on your body without knowing its significance just for its aesthetic value. Anybody who has an understanding of Chinese tattoo meaning could easily understand what you have on your body which may be quite inappropriate. In such a case it could be embarrassing when people may stare and laugh at you.

Chinese tattoo symbols are an interesting and unconventional means of expression. Although the art of tattooing has been there in China for many centuries it is today that the Chinese tattoo symbols are receiving world wide acclaim. Ironically the practice of tattooing is not considered to be a very noble form of art in China.

It is a amazing fact that tattoo as a form of art was considered to be barbaric in ancient China. In spite of such feelings the tattoo artists had expressed their art in a most artistic and philosophical way and the symbols representing the tattoos mean many different things.

Why the Chinese regarded tattooing as an exception was the fact that these symbols were engraved on the bodies of the criminals in ancient times who were treated as outcasts. Now of course the perception has changed as Chinese tattooing has become so popular all over the world especially in the west.

Since most of the people who wish to get Chinese tattoo done on themselves and do not understand Chinese have found a new way to do get it done. They demand to get the names, ideas or concepts translated from other languages into Chinese tattoo. This in turn is not so difficult as Chinese tattoo symbols originate about 4000 years back and most of the things you desire can be found in these symbols.

Every concept is turned into a symbol of Chinese language which is extremely artistic. This is a scientifically developed art which consists of 70, 000 concepts and you will probably run out of ideas to translate concepts into Chinese symbol for tattooing purpose or otherwise. Thus you can be certain that any idea from any language can be successfully translated to Chinese symbol and still look equally pleasing.

Some people mistake conventional Chinese symbols to be the same as the script known as Kanji. The fact of the matter is that the Kanji although Chinese in origin was adopted and modified by the Japanese. Whereas the Chinese tattoo symbols that may even have a similar physical appearance can have drastically different meanings. - 30294

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