Chinese symbols for tattoos: meanings, what to choose and how not to get it wrong

October 9, 2026 · 7 min read

People choose Chinese characters for tattoos because one sign holds a whole idea: love, strength, family. That is exactly why it's so easy to get them wrong. A character taken from a picture online can turn out to be half a word, the Japanese form instead of the Chinese one, or a word with a different shade of meaning. Below are Chinese symbols with their meanings for the most popular ideas, and a way to check an inscription before it becomes permanent. We don't draw designs: this article is about the language.

What to know before choosing a Chinese character for a tattoo

A character is not a letter. Each one is a syllable with a meaning: a whole word or part of one. Chinese has no alphabet; more on that in the article "The Chinese alphabet: why there isn't one".

A word often takes two characters. 家 jiā — home, family is a word of one character. But "health" is 健康 jiànkāng — health, and neither half can stand in for it. One character and a two-character word are not the same thing, even when they share a sign: 梦 mèng — a dream (in sleep) and 梦想 mèngxiǎng — a dream (in life).

One English word, several Chinese ones. English "dream" covers both of the words above. "Peace" can be 和平 hépíng — peace, no war or 平安 píng’ān — safe and sound, and "world peace" also needs 世界 shìjiè — the world. Word-for-word translation doesn't work here: first decide what exactly you want to say.

Chinese symbols for tattoos and their meanings

The table lists popular meanings, the words from our course dictionary, and a caveat for each. Characters are given in simplified form, as used in mainland China. Tap a word to hear it; the "breakdown" link leads to the word's page with stroke order and examples.

More characters by theme (nature, animals, feelings) are on the page "Chinese characters and their meanings". The two most popular get articles of their own: the Chinese symbol for love and the Chinese symbol for happiness.

Five common mistakes in Chinese tattoos

• A Chinese "alphabet". Charts that match each letter from A to Z with a character are made up: no such alphabet exists. A name spelled with one is a random string of characters. Foreign names are written in Chinese syllable by syllable, with characters chosen for their sound: see how it's done on the page "Your name in Chinese".
• Machine-translating a phrase. A translator handles a single word, but with a motto or a quote it easily picks the wrong meaning and breaks the word order. The result is an inscription a native speaker can read but not understand, or understands differently.
• A mirrored or upside-down character. A stencil is easy to apply the wrong way round. For someone who reads Chinese, that's no small thing: a mirrored 人 rén — person looks very much like 入 rù — to enter.
• Mixed forms. One character simplified, another traditional, a third in its Japanese form. Each is correct on its own; together they look like a word written half in Latin letters and half in Greek.
• A fragment. Half a word, like 朋 without 友, or a lone radical such as 氵 or 忄. A radical is part of a character, not a character: more in the article "Chinese radicals".

A special case is characters with an unexpected second meaning. 信 xìn — to believe is also "letter". 生 shēng — to be born also means "raw, unfamiliar". 爱人 àiren — husband or wife is literally "beloved person", but in China it means a spouse. A dictionary shows all the meanings at once, which is why it's the place to start.

Chinese or Japanese characters for a tattoo: what's the difference?

Japanese characters, kanji, came from China, and most of them share their meanings. But these are two different languages: the characters are read differently, and some are written differently. "Dragon" is 龙 in China and 竜 in Japan. "Qi energy" is 气 in China and 気 in Japan.

Words diverge too. 手紙 in Japanese is "letter", while the same two characters in Chinese mean toilet paper. 汤 tāng — soup is soup in Chinese, while in Japanese this character (湯) is hot water. So first decide which language the inscription is in, and check it against a dictionary of that language. A detailed comparison is in the article "Chinese or Japanese".

Simplified or traditional characters?

Mainland China writes simplified characters; Taiwan and Hong Kong write traditional ones. The traditional form is more complex and looks "more like calligraphy": it has more strokes. Compare 爱 and 愛, 龙 and 龍, 梦 and 夢.

Both are correct, and choosing between them is a matter of taste. There is one rule: don't mix them in one inscription. Many characters were never changed at all: 福, 力, 家, 美 look the same in both.

How to check your inscription: a six-point checklist

• Look the character up in a dictionary and see the words it appears in. That shows whether it's a word on its own or part of another one. On the characters page, each character links to a word page with a breakdown.
• Check the reading and the meaning. Write down the pinyin with its tone and the translation: all the meanings, not just the first.
• Check the stroke order and count. 爱 has ten strokes, 愛 thirteen: one stroke too many or too few changes the character. How to count strokes is in the article "How to write Chinese characters", and on the handwriting sheets you can trace a character step by step.
• Show it to a native speaker or a teacher. Without explaining: let them tell you what they read. If their answer doesn't match your idea, the inscription needs to change.
• Ask for a font, not "a picture from the internet". An inscription typed in a real Chinese font can be checked character by character. With a picture, you know neither where it came from nor whether it's been flipped.
• Don't shorten the phrase yourself. Dropping an "extra" character so the inscription fits means ending up with a different word or a fragment.