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Kanji Tattoo Designs Part III - Understanding Kanji Symbols Are you considering getting a kanji tattoo? Kanji tattoos while very expressive are very often misunderstood. Theres lots of stories of people getting kanjis only to discover later it didn't mean what they thought it did.In this article we hope to give you more of an understanding of the different styles of Japanese characters or scripts particularly katakana. In the previous two articles we discussed the two other types of Japanese scripts used in Japanese kanji tattoo designs which are:
In this article we are going to focus on the third Japanese script which is called Katakana. This particular form of Japanese scripts is most often used for writing names (particularly Western) in Japanese. When most people think of kanjis they don't reaslise that there are three distinct styles. So what is Katakana ("Kah-Tah-Kah-Nah")? Nowadays the main use of katakana is for writing non-Japanese words which have been introduced into the language such as:
* Japanese Katakana script. Courtesy of DSFY A good example of this is McDonalds Restaurants signage in Japan which is written in Katakana symbols. One thing to keep in mind is that the pronunciation changes to fit the Japanese langauge. A lot Japanese people particularly young people love shortened words, and change the word naturally. For example, they say:
Katakana script has the effect of making words stand out. So it is often used in advertisements. Native Japanese words written in Katakana require a full knowledge of Japanese writing system and vocabulary to work out their meaning. In the next article we will give an overview of the different styles of Japanese characters and which one to choose if you are considering getting a Japanese kanji tattoo design. Do you need a Japanese kanji tattoo translated accurately?
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