Hey everyone! Help with tattoo

[highlyevolved]

Hey everyone!

I'm new to the forum. I'm a 26 year old English guy who has just recently started learning Japanese in my spare time. Starting around 9-10 weeks ago.

So far I have learned to read and write the Hiragana and Katakana including the plosives, voiced marks and dipthongs and am just beginning the Kanji.

I know a small number of words in Japanese but one that really stands out is the word Genki and it's meaning. Energetic, full of live, healthy, positivity etc. And I like how this is used by the Japanese when asking the equivalent of How are you?

I'm looking for some advice. I'd really like Genki as a tattoo. I was thinking of having the word in Kanji with some small furigana on top spelling it out in syllabals cos it looks cool but wanted some advice.

Would the furigana be best written in Hiragana as this is a traditional word, or in Katakana?

Also are there any cool phrases or quotes anyone knows using the word Genki that I could think about having tattooed instead, although I like the word on it's own I'd also consider a neat phrase.

Here's a very rough idea as to what I'd have obviously with the furigana aligned correctly on the left :-)

げんき
元気

thanks
Phil

[JohnBraden]

Originally Posted by highlyevolved

Hey everyone!

I'm new to the forum. I'm a 26 year old English guy who has just recently started learning Japanese in my spare time. Starting around 9-10 weeks ago.

So far I have learned to read and write the Hiragana and Katakana including the plosives, voiced marks and dipthongs and am just beginning the Kanji.

I know a small number of words in Japanese but one that really stands out is the word Genki and it's meaning. Energetic, full of live, healthy, positivity etc. And I like how this is used by the Japanese when asking the equivalent of How are you?

I'm looking for some advice. I'd really like Genki as a tattoo. I was thinking of having the word in Kanji with some small furigana on top spelling it out in syllabals cos it looks cool but wanted some advice.

Would the furigana be best written in Hiragana as this is a traditional word, or in Katakana?

Also are there any cool phrases or quotes anyone knows using the word Genki that I could think about having tattooed instead, although I like the word on it's own I'd also consider a neat phrase.

Here's a very rough idea as to what I'd have obviously with the furigana aligned correctly on the left :-)

げんき
元気

thanks
Phil

Kanji tattoos are very tricky. Get the wrong one and it means something completely different from what you intended. Also, from what I've heard, it looks funny on a gaijin and if you do go to Japan, they'll wonder wtf.... Just putting my yen's worth of advise/opinion....

[highlyevolved]

hehe! Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah it's something that needs to be researched properly 'cos I don't want it to mean something completely different.

My friend has just come back from living in Seoul for a year and he said that in Korea they had English tattoos and t-shirts that made no sense at all. I want to avoid doing the same in Japanese.