My Custom Tattoo: Tattoo Designs

So we have come full circle now and this is the last in our Japanese Tattoo series for now. Although we will be publishing some articles soon on Japanese tattoos this is kind of the last featured post about Japanese tattoos through videos. We have kind of come full circle now of sorts. When we started we talked about tattooing for the Japanese in a historical perspective and how it was used to brand criminals. Then this was later outlawed and subsequently adopted by Yakuza. They would get full body tattoos that when you wear clothes no one could see but a small reveal of such a tattoo could strike fear in others.

Thus tradition lead to some of the most beautiful full body tattoo designs ever done and we even saw where people are buying the skin of a tattooed person who has died. There was some of these skins preserved at Tokyo University. Pretty chilling to hear as they talk about these being sold on the black market. Not sure how you would ever find your way into buying one of these but that is another post for a latter time. Suffice it to say it is probably not being sold on eBay.

Then in our more recent or last post we saw some video and a short documentary how many of the young people in Japan are getting tattoos. However they are in no way affiliated with the Yakuza and they just love the art form of tattooing. Thus has been the more significant trend over the last ten to 15 years and now many young Japanese show off their tattoos like here in the West.

Well in today’s video we make it full circle because recently the San Francisco Japanese Museum had an exhibit where they displayed some of the full body traditonal Japanese tattoos in their gallery as an art exhibit. They also invited many of the top Japanese tattoo artists to come from Japan to do tattooing.

Welcome to the 4th post in our series on Japanese tattoos. You will remeber in the first post we talked about the connection between tattoos and the Yakuza. It noted how early in Japanese history criminals were tattooed as a form of punishment. Thus making them untouchables. Thus lead to the modern day Yakuza tattooing themselves to make them stand out away from society as individuals and etc. I was more eloquent hopefully in the last post. However, what is happening today is the younger generations in Japan have adopted Western ways more and more. So along with this adoption of western norms has come a new breed of tattoo aficionado. Today many young people get tattoos for the pure sake of the art and the beauty of it and have no connection with the Yakuza. You could start to see that a little bit in the last video and you will see it even more in this video.

Today we will continue the series on Japanese tattoo designs. Remember that yesterday in our post we watched an older history channel video that was showing the connection between Japanese tattoos and the Yakuza. Today we are going to venture off the more documentary side of things and instead show a nicely done video that just shows images and pictures of tattoos. Many of these are Yakuza full body suits of tattoos however not all of them are. In fact that is one of reasons why this video and post seems appropriate. It shows a lot of Yakuza tattoos but also you start to see some images of tattoos on younger men that are just getting the tattoo because they love the art form and they love tattoos.

One little vocabulary lesson before you jump into the video however. Tattoos in Japanese are called Irezumi. Interesting vocabulary fact.

Interested in Polynesian and Hawaiian tattoo designs? This is a very well done segment on both!

Are you sick of seeing the same old tattoo flash and tattoo designs on everyone and their brother. For example to you hate when you see another girl with a butterfly lower back tattoo or how about a guy with a barbwire armband? You probably don’t like these tattoos because they have been overdone and they are not original. So the question is how can you easily design your own tattoo and still have something quick, easy and inexpensive. Typically paying an artist to do a custom tattoo design for you can cost a good deal of money. There are all of the designs sites and designs that you can find online but are those going to work well if you want something unique? If you are not an artist yourself you might feel stuck just buying stock flash and going with whatever is in the tattoo shop. However, it does not have to be that way. With today’s computers, internet, and easy availability of resource materials for tattoo designs including free pictures, paid designs that are inexpensive and other sources it is pretty easy to create a unique tattoo design with very little pain or outlay in cost.

Making It Unique: Color
One of the best things to do is first find some stock flash or sign up with an online tattoo database site. Then find a few different tattoo designs that you like. Print these out and write down what you like about each design. Instead of taking each design exactly as it is you want to make some changes to it to make the entire design more unique and different. One easy way is to change the color of the design. If it is a butterfly tattoo for example you can trace the design and then change the coloration of it. A floral tattoo can also easily go through a color change. You might or might not be bale to effectively change the color and if you can go for it. However, if the color does not lend itself to a change then look at one of the steps below for some other ideas to make it look unique.

Making It Unique: Shape
Often it is very easy to change the shape in some way to make it more unique and different from the stock design. You can lengthen the overall dimensions of the tattoo or make it smaller. You can even leave a piece of the design out to change the size easily.

Making It Unique: Location
Yet another quick and easy way to make the design unique is to change the location of where you will get the tattoo done. Often a tattoo that is meant to be a lower back tattoo for example can easily be placed somewhere else on the body like a hip to make it unique and different. You might need to change the size or shape in some way to fit it into the new location easily.

Making It Unique: Variations
There are many different ways that you can change a tattoo and make a different variation of the original design. Change a portion of the tattoo by adding something to it or take something out. These can easily be done by tracing over parts and even combining two different tattoos to make something unique. For example you might like the swallow birds on one tattoo and combine this with a burning heart tattoo. The two swallows could be holding a banner over top of a flaming heart with something written one it. This can easily be done with some tracing paper and coping elements of the design you like and adding it to other design elements that you like to create your own unique tattoo design. So go ahead and mix and match and have fun.

It is so easy to quickly design your own tattoo. You really don’t need to be a professional artist. Just some basic computer skills or even basic understanding of design and some tracing paper and you can easily design your own tattoo that is unique and original and something that you can be the proud owner of. Just think about how cool it is to show your friends a hot looking tattoo design hat you created on your own. That should give you some definite bragging rights.

Typically people think of wing tattoos for women.  Yet there are many guys that also like to get wing tattoos.  It is not only a feminine tattoo design.  Many men like to think of having wings. It can be a symbol for speed, strength and power!  So give it a thought guys.

Here is another installment of our Question and Answer Posts on tattoos.  The question today is from a young girl.  She wants to get a tattoo with her sister that represents or says “Friendship”.

Here is what she wrote:
“me and my sister want to get matching tattoos that say friendship we were thinking of getting it in chinese characters on our wrist

do you have any other ideas or other characters that mean friendship…thanks “

My first response is to take your time and dont rush into getting the tattoo.  If you are not sure what you want yet then you probably are not ready for the tattoo.  So here are some ideas that might work for a beautiful freindship tattoo.

Well, honestly it is important to pick something that is meaningful tot he both of you.  Since no one on this site knows that much about you both it is kind of hard to answer the question.  Tattoos are very personal and should say something about the person wearing them.

With all of that said I would suggest you take your time in getting the tattoo.  Some of the best tattoos that people love forever are the ones that took time to dream up, design and get tattooed.  The ones people end up hating are the ones they got with their buddies or friends on a drunken night out on a whim.  So don’t decide on a whim or because some message at Yahoo answers.  Instead take time to identify what is special about your friendship.  Is is the trust between you two?  Do you have some similar interests that could form a tattoo design?  Again take your time and contemplate for a while.  I can almost guarantee that when you put it on back burner in like a week or two the idea will hit you with a ton of bricks.

Here are some common tattoos that can represent friendship.

Claddagh Tattoo Design – A Celtic ring with a heart in the middle and two hands holding it.  This is often thought of romantically to represent boyfriend and girlfriend and even has become a wedding band.  However, the symbol also represent true friendship and it does not have to carry the sexual connotation with it.  It could very easily work for friendship.

Sun and Moon Tattoos -  This could also be a star and moon or any other pair of objects that are often associated together.

Yin Yang – The Chinese symbol.  I wont go into detail as you can Google it.  But it represent the two halves of nature and the world in one complete whole.

Ambigram Tattoo -  These are becoming very popular right now and look incredible.  They are two words (could be your names) that get combined together to make one word that can be read right side up or upside down.  So for example if your names were Lucy and Anne the two names would be combined.  Then when read one way it would say “Lucy” and when turned upside down it would read “Anne”.  The names have to be no more then two letters apart.  If your names don’t work you could also do an ambigram tattoo of two important concepts to your friendship.  Like Trust and Love or something.

Here is the question that I found posted over at Yahoo Answers and I thought it was pretty interesting.

“I’m 18. I’ve been thinking for a while about getting my first tattoo and I’m between a cherry blossom on my right shoulder blade(or right upper back, whatever you call it), or an anchor(more symbolic choice) on my left foot.
any thoughts?

Additional Details

1. i know i’m not gonna regret getting a tat because not only is it going to have meaning, it’s going to represent this stage in my life.

2. no, i’m not gonna have to worry about showing it at work.

3. i have a pretty high threshold for pain & i know the foot would be more painful but i don’t think that’s a reason not to do one there.

also i’m not getting this for a while. i’m waiting until summer, then i’m gonna get a henna tat of whatever i decide to see if i really like it.

Here is my response to the question.  There was a few other really good resposnes also.  Other then the occasional response of “you’ll regret it” a few people there took the time to really answer honestly.

So here is my response.

Let me just start by saying this is a question that you can really only answer by yourself as a tattoo is personal and as you already stated it represent this stage of your life.

However, with all of that said you seem to have already spent a great deal of time thinking about it and mulling over your choices which is good.  You also have a set location and a time frame in the future so you know it is not a rush decision.  You have done everything you can to come out with a tattoo that you are really going to love in the end.

I understand your wanting feedback in terms of the placement and design.

Both of the tattoos that you are considering have a rich tradition in the world of tattoos and also have fairly established meanings.  However, the reason that you get your tattoo and what it symbolizes about the stage in your life is really a personal choice also.

Some of the more traditionally meanings for the two tattoos are
Chery Blossoms – Are typically used in Japanese design motifs and tattooing.  Typically they symbolize great beauty, impermanence or the shifting of life.  The cherry blossom is often short lived and only displayed on the tree for a month in Japan.  It can also symbolize love between two people.

The Anchor tattoo of course is an old sailor tattoo.  It was typically a tattoo that a sailor would get after crossing the Atlantic their first time.  In the more ancient history or past the symbol was much like the fish and it was a symbol to show connection to the early Christian Church.  However, today it has become a symbol  for many in the Navy and sailors in general.  Also it is used pretty widely by tattoo artists for its traditional look at feel sort of a retro theme so to speak.

Those are some of the more common symbolism behind both tattoos.  Which one you pick should be up to you.

I personally could see the argument going either way.  The foot tattoo is apt to be more painful, yet you state you have a high pain tolerance.  The should tattoo might be less painful but it is also going to be more visible.  So there are positive and some down sides to either one.  I would probably go with the cherry blossom tattoo just because it is more unique and could be combined with a larger Japanese tattoo design at a later time if you chose.

One of the more popular trends in tattoo designs now and has been for a long time is to get a letter tattoo design.  You see letter tattoo designs on everyone from gang names across the chest or on the next to a sexy or cute Latin phrase on the feminine wrist tattoo.  Letter tattoo designs are very popular and as already kind of hinted at they are very diverse.  If you are thinking about getting a letter or word tattoo design then you will want to read this article first.  It will break down some of the basics that you will want to factor into your design very early on.  First it will explore the ideal location for a letter tattoo.  Next it will focus on the different styles of letter that are available and last it will look into possible additions.  This article is meant to help you focus your efforts and ideas to come up with a coherent design for a tattoo.  If you are not artistically inclined don’t worry about the design part you can always have a tattoo artist do that for you.  However, before you set foot in the tattoo shop make up your mind about some of these basic choices so you can speak intelligently about what you want.

Consider The Location
The first thing that you should do when considering any tattoo design is the location and size of the tattoo you want.  These two really go hand in and hand.  The design of the lettering tattoo, the size and the location are all integral pieces of the overall tattoo.  Most people often start with either a design or a location already in mind.  If you do build from the one known factor and then come up with the unknown.  For example if you know that you really want an upper back tattoo but you are not sure what to get then you at least can work with what you know.  For example the upper back is a large canvas for a rather big tattoo.  So you can kind of go crazy and get something either pretty long or something large.  Yet if you want a wrist tattoo that can easily be covered up then you are under a whole different situation.  In this case you are going to have to go small.  So take what things you know, the size, possible design or location and work out in your mind the other two ideas.

Consider The Lettering Style
Once you have the location, the saying or word that you want then it is time to consider the lettering style.  There is really a wide range out there available to you.  You can go with something like Old English, a graffiti type font or even a logo font.  Not only that you do not have to limit yourself to the English language even.  You can get something written in Sanskrit like Jessica Alba did she has the Sanskrit character for lotus on her wrist.  You can do something with Arabic, Japanese or Chinese or whatever language you feel a connection to.  However, you will want to carefully consider the design, and letter style that you want as it will carry the overall tone and feel for the tattoo.  In other words it might look really funny to write something like Lotus Flower in Old English across the top of your back.  Of course if that is what you want then there is no one stopping you.  However, just remember the character and lettering style you choose will be the visual element that carries your design.

Additions?
The last thing that you will want to think about before going to your local tattoo shop is if you want any other visual elements added to the design.  For example if you went with the Sanskrit word for lotus on your wrist do you want a lotus flower on the underside of the wrist to go with the design?  You can always add on little visual elements that can help convey the feeling and meaning of the tattoo.  It is best to consider the options first and design the words around and connected with any visual elements that you might want o include.

The most important thing is to take your time.  Look at lots of examples and don’t just jump at the first most obvious of tattoo designs.  Thus way you can ensure that you get a tattoo that you will feel connected to and proud of the rest of you life.

If you are looking for a great source of printable tattoo designs that you can easily access online here are some ways to make sure you get a quality design and a good quality tattoo that is also printable.