Chinese tattoo?

Question

Of my partners names, where can i get it translated and how do i know its really his name?

Website etc?

Answer 1

To be honest i would trust websites... you will get a million different versions. i would just find either a chinese friend or a chinese tattoo artist that you can trust to give you a proper translation.

Answer 2

Take a tip from someone who lives in China. DONT DO IT.
There are very few, if any, direct translations and the fad in the West for anything Chinese is ~ to us out here ~ silly. The Chinese who work with Western companies etc or at least the younger ones who are taught English as soon as they start school, probably all have a Western name e.g. Peter, Sally etc etc but it is NEVER translated to Chinese.
In addition which Chinese would you use and more appropriately who would care? There are two main forms of letters, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese both a form of Mandarin. Although the characters look the same their exact meaning can be different. Then you can delve in to dialect, Shanghai has its own for an example and Hong Kong uses Cantonese.
Most tourists can buy a name card in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan which show the Western name (e.g. Richard) and then the Chinese symbol for it .. My Chinese colleagues often correct these verbally when they see them .. much to the shop keepers dismay.
So in short and once again don't do it, even if your own people cannot tell any Chinese would be able to.

Answer 3

Just don't do it.

Western names don't translate to Asian languages well at all. I speak Japanese and my name is Tristan, and rather than English or German or another Euro language, where we have individual letters that would spell out T R I S T A N, in Japanese you have syllables, which would spell out TO RI SU TA N. So, the way I write my name in Japanese is "Torisutan." But since it's my own name and there's no direct way to translate it, I could have it be "Tarisutan" or "Torisatan" or "Tarisatan" or whatever. Different Japanese people write my name differently, just like how soem people from China would translate their name to Quixong Ji and others would translate it Quijong Ji in English.

I know Japanese, so I could, if I wanted, get my name tattooed in Japanese and I'd actually be able to tell what it says. If I went to get it tattooed in Chinese I'd have no idea what the hell it says. It could say "retarded fatboy" or "smelly fishmonger" and I'd be none the wiser till Chinese people started laughing at me.

Plus, I'm sorry, non-Asian people with Asian tattoos is so 1999. So chav. So not-classy. You may as well go around listening to Limp Bizkit and driving a lowered Mitsubishi with a dragon on the side.

If you really want, though, I can get it for you in Japanese.

Answer 4

Unless your partner has a Chinese name (which I doubt since it'd not have to be translated then), it won't be his name. It could mean 'horrible toilet' and still sound like his name without you knowing.

If you insist on it, make sure you get someone with a good knowledge of the language to do it and ask the meaning.

Answer 5

Chinese characters come in two forms, traditional (Hong Kong, Taiwan) and simplified (mainland). There is no direct translation between Chinese and Western names. However, for some common names there are agreed transliterations. For example, Dave goes to da wei ('big protector') in characters 大卫.
You would need to give more details to give a more complete answer.

Answer 6

i wouldnt trust a website if you have a local chinese and they speak chinese ask them politely and they will tell you lol this is what i had done for my tattoos since sometimes things you get off sites and from a tattoo shop mean the total oppersite

Answer 7

I got a chinese symbol on my arm (monkey) I only found out it was real when a waiter in a chinese restaurant called me monkey.

I am trying to design a cover up now - Om Mani Padme Hum would be best in Tibetan and cover up the symbol of oppression.

Answer 8

If you can't speak or write the language, don't do it. You can't spot mistakes yourself, instead you have to rely on the accuracy of the writer and the tattoo artist. A girl got what she thought was "my love" on her arm. Instead my friend who reads chinese said it looked like "my horse". And she said the tattoo writing was really bad. LOL

Answer 9

the chinese lanuage uses characters that are words, not letters, so you can't really translate it, but the japanese lanuage does, well it matters what type of japanese you use like katakana or kanji. But just so you do know, I strongly recomend that you do not get any tattoos. If you're looking for a site here you go: http://www.harapan.co.jp/english/japan/hiragana.htm

Answer 10

Don't do it!

The odds are hugely against most relationships lasting over the long haul. Then you're left explaining to any new bf's why you still have the X's name, chinese or otherwise, still on your body.

Or do you enjoy having painful laser tattoo removal and permanent scars.

If you want to have a chinese symbol, choose something other than a name. If your bf insists it should be his name, tell him to find some other cow to put his brand on.

Answer 11

Chinese? Choose from over 200 Australian Aboriginal languages, they're understandable. Chinese is meaningless.