Chinese Calligraphy Tattoo Ideas

Single words, names and short phrases make the most legible brush tattoos. Preview your idea in calligraphy and hand a clean image to your artist.

"Strength" drawn in the Regular (楷书) brush style — a shape that translates well to skin.

Ideas that read well as tattoos

Short words hold up best: single names, and words such as Love, Peace, Hope, Faith, Courage, Strength, Dream and Family. Vertical layouts echo traditional Chinese scrolls and suit the forearm or spine; horizontal suits the shoulder blade or ribs. For a Chinese character, the single-character form is usually cleaner on skin than a long phrase.

Choose a style that will age well

The Regular (楷书) and Flowing (行书) styles keep their shape as lines spread over the years. The Wild and Grass styles are striking but finer details may blur — tell your artist which strokes you want thinned. Bold strokes and generous spacing age better than thin, dense strokes.

Before you tattoo: always confirm the spelling and meaning with a native Chinese speaker — especially if you use Chinese characters rather than English letters. Different characters can sound alike but mean very different things, and a machine rendering is not a translation. Show a native speaker the exact image you plan to ink.

Open Strength in the generator

Try your own word Meanings of characters Love Hope Dream