Japanese Kanji Tattoos are fast becoming the most popular tattoo design. Japanese Kanji characters are so incredibly artistic and have such mystique that it seems as though they were created ideally for the purpose of tattoos. When you think about the best qualities of a tattoo many words come to mind such as symbolic, mysterious, and meaning. The beauty of Japanese Kanji tattoos is that each Kanji symbol is an ideographic character, which means is represents an entire object/meaning/symbol. Japanese Kanji symbols have such elaborate definition; each stroke of the symbol must be done in the correct direction and order. Japanese Kanji Tattoos can easily represent nearly any meaning you want. Words such as love, peace, freedom, strength, unity are very popular Japanese Kanji tattoos, as well as loved one's names.

It is a good idea to research your Japanese Kanji Tattoo before visiting your tattoo artist. There are several reasons for this - firstly, Kanji is a different form of language to English, and if you were to choose a Kanji sentence, the order of the words will be in different order to English. Secondly, many tattoo parlors have Japanese Kanji tattoo designs which have been altered by westerners and you will not know until it is too late. Finally, some Japanese Kanji characters have several meanings, and you may think your symbol means one thing, where in fact it means something completely different. Luckily there are websites out there that can help you get the perfect translation.

You will see many tattoo shops offering Japanese Kanji tattoos, unfortunately many of these characters have been altered and are written incorrectly. Unless you have a native Japanese person with you on your visit to the tattooist, you will have no idea if it actually means what you think. Too much risk.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your tattoo design from a professional service. Nowadays, the best way to get your tattoo design is from an online tattoo database. This allows you to carefully choose your own tattoo from the comfort of your home without having to actually to go to the tattoo parlors and search through magazines with a pushy store owner looking to make a sale.