David Beckham’s Tattoo

It means

“Death and life have determined appointments, riches and honor depend upon heaven.”

It is one of the most meaningful Chinese tattoo I have seen on celebrities. The tattoo was done by one of the best tattoo artists in Hong Kong called Gabe.

Another good translation in English is

“Life and death are decided by fate, wealth and honor are from heaven.”

In fact, this is a well-known saying originating from the Analects, a brilliant book (you can get it from Amazon.com for under a $10) noting the remarks of Confucius.

The characters from top to bottom are:

1. Life -  Pronounced “xeng” in Mandarin, “sang” in Cantonese.
2. Death – Pronounced “si” in Mandarin, “sei” in Cantonese.
3. Has – Pronounced “you” in Mandarin, “yau” in Cantonese.
4. Fate /Determined appointments – Pronounced “ming” in Mandarin, “ming” in Cantonese.
5. Riches – Pronounced “fu” in Mandarin, “fu” in Cantonese.
6. Wealth and Honor -  Pronounced “gui” in Mandarin, “gwai” in Cantonese.
7. From/depend upon – Pronounced “you” in Mandarin, “yau” in Cantonese.
8. Heaven – Pronounced “tian” in Mandarin, “tin” in Cantonese.

Cher’s Chinese Tattoo

Even Marcus Camby is one of those celebrities who first displayed prominently kanji tattoos, Cher is definitely the pioneer.

She had her Chinese tattoo done in 1983.

The character on her right arm is pronounced “li” in Mandarin, “lik” in Cantonese. She meant to have it mean “strength”.

It is the Chinese character which usually stands for for power. It is also the first character of a Chinese double character word for strength. It is best to use the double character if one wants to refer to strength. However, many people nowadays mistakenly use the first character only.

Larry Hughes’ Chinese Tattoo

The character means loyalty/loyal. Pronounced “zhong” in Mandarin, “jung” in Cantonese. Larry Hughes said “It’s about loyalty to the game and loyalty to myself.

Marcus Camby’s Chinese Tattoo

“I was one of the originators of the Chinese characters,” said Camby, who broke into the NBA in 1996. ” I want to be the best. And I’ve got a lot of love for my family.” But why in Chinese? “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks,” he explains, “a lot of kung fu movies.”

The characters from top to bottom are:

1. Strive to be the best/ Encourage - Pronounced “mian” in Mandarin, “min” in Cantonese.
2. Clan – Pronounced “zu” in Mandarin, “juk” in Cantonese.

Nick Carter’s Chinese Tattoo

Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter uniquely combined Greek mythology and Chinese art. His Chinese tattoo is the Chinese tranlation for “Poseidon” – the god of the sea in Greek mythology.

The characters from top to bottom are:

1. Sea – Pronounced “hai” in Mandarin, “hoi” in Cantonese.
2. God – Pronounced “shen” in Mandarin, “sun” in Cantonese.

If you want to add something to this article? Write a comment, thank you

Mark Johns

Can’t find the Chinese tattoo symbol you want? Join www.LAInkTattooDesigns.com and Get Instant Access To Over 30,000 Tattoo Designs!

What I am about to share with you today not many people know and some tattoo artist charge for such a service … Now you don’t have to pay for it any more.

We all know that if you take any existing tattoo designs and add lettering to it you will get tattoo that is yours and personal (unique).

Here is a 3 easy step process anyone can follow to get just that a unique tattoo design!

STEP 1

Find a tattoo design you want to use

STEP 2

Find fonts you want to use:

STEP 3

Put it all together and you got yourself a unique tattoo

Let me run trough steps again:

1. Find tattoo design (click here to get access to 30,000 tattoo designs instantly) – Great Source of Tattoo Designs are Tattoo Magazines you can try www.WorldTattooAssociation.com they offer 14 day FREE access to top tattoo magazines, great service I am using it for some time now.
2. Find fonts that you like and want to use (go to dafont.com and download fonts that you like for free)
3. Use image editor like Photoshop to add your text to tattoo design (print it and take it to your artist)

I just want to add that if you don’t have Photoshop (it is bit expensive) you can use Piknic or Splashup for free!

I hope that you find this information useful,

Have a great day,

Mark

P.S. Please comment below!

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