How do tattoo artists come up with a Chinese name?

usually they purchase supposed words and an alphabet from somewhere and use that. it is totally fake and tons of people have nonsense tattooed on them. i think it's kindof funny but i always try to tell people not to do it.

Chinese Name Tattoo

Let me give you a definitive answer. Some of the previous suggestions are correct up to a point but then added something that misled.

When a non-Chinese asks for their name to be represented in Chinese, it depends on the dialect the Chinese person speaks because each dialect has its own way of pronouncing the characters. Generally, non-Chinese names should be rendered according to the official Manadarin dialect, and it is usually a phonetic rendering, i.e. characters are chosen so as to sound as close as possible to the non-Chinese name, e.g. John will be rendered as 'Yo-Han' - using 2 characters as Chinese is monosyllabic (each character representing only one sound). If the person that is doing the rendering is educated and familiar with the chinese classics, the characters will be chosen so as to produce a propitious and flattering combination. This means that the same non-Chinese name may not use the same characters - it depends on the person doing it. Over the years, the demand for such a service has meant that books have been produced to show the equivalent Chinese characters for many non-Chinese names. Englightened tatooists use them.

Occasionally, someone may be given a Chinese name that has no relation to its non-Chinese sound, but that is not the question posed here. Then there are those who take the mickey on the unwitting victim. It is rarely that a Chinese would perpetrate such a destardly prank, unless on a deserving 'kuei-low'.

I lived in both Singapore and Jahore B in Malaysia for a time. All the visitors were buying handbags with brass Chinese symbols on the front. But how did they know what they meant? Could have been 'Silly White Trash'.

But I don't think the Chinese would do that.

Short of spending 15 years learning Chinese - Mandarin and all of the other dialects, then you never know.

I should imagine the tattoo artist has a portfolio of 'nice looking' Chinese symbols which appeals to the Western people.

Short of appealing to your national embassy to advise, you have to accept what you get at face value.

Again, if I asked for my name to be tattood in Chinese, and it was done, and I didn't know any different, then I would be happy. So is it worth the worry?

I think it can vary from person to person... probably the most common ones will be where the tattooist just takes the sound value of chinese characters to make up an English name- so in a name like 'Louise', you might get characters for 'Lu' 'I' and 'Su' together... that's the easiest thing for English language tattooists to do, I'm not sure if many of them are ready to learn Chinese, so the system could be quite brutal...

I was off looking for something else, and I found the following site- http://japanese.about.com/bltattoo.htm

It looks like people may do research on what their names are in Chinese, Japanese, etc, and then show the tattooist what they want- hey, good luck with your tattoo ;)

Others may go for a meaning match... I can't think of an example of the top of my head, but say, if someone's name meant 'strength' in English, their Chinese name might just be the symbol for power... probably that's a bit rarer, but maybe there is some guide for tattooists to show them what the appropriate hanji are...

I can never understand why someone would have something they do not understand permanently etched onto their bodies. Reminds me of the story from a couple of years ago of a bloke in the UK who had Chinese characters tattooed on his arm. He thought they meant something like "strength" or "Peace" or some such, until he went into a Chinese Take Away and the staff started laughing at him. Turned out the tattoos said something like "Really Ugly Bloke", and the twit then allowed his photo to be plastered all over the papers!.

I know of a girl in this area who asked for the Chinese for her name to be tattooed on her shoulder. She went into a local restaurant for a meal with her boyfriend and saw the same symbols in an area near the till. Being surprised she pointed this out and amid much mirth the waiter told her that she had the symbols saying "We hope your meal was worth the wait". She finds it funny now but didn't at the time.

Chinese has no official alphabet, but to convert english characters or names to be converted they have desingned two, call them codes or alphabets, they are really sounds, for the translations. These are Katakana and Hirigana. So a name like robert becomes, as close as can be established, ro re ro t. It sounds silly but its true. I have been studying this for ages and yes, some people who have thier names tatooed on do not really realise what it says. Also some of the characters are upside down. It makes me laugh that they are soooo proud of it, would you really have it done if you didn't know what it says? I know I wouldn't.

Hope that helps, probably get a violation for this answer too, I think someone out there is following me around and reporting all my answers!!!!

the guy I know uses a book that a Chinese friend gave him and uses the symbols that make up the sound of the name as close as possible. His friend tells me he has seen lots of tattoos that don't mean anything and that some are even upside down!

My husband has the names of both our children in chinese tattooed one on his uper arm and one on his lower leg. His arm he had done in spain, and I'm convinced it says "hola, sailor" and "I'm a nice boy" on his leg. However one tatoo artist insists that he used the chinese symbols that make the sounds of the name ie NICOLE becomes NI and COLE or there abouts. My sister- in-law is Japanese and is not convinced!! Imagine the fun these tattoo parlours could have, especially if they are having a bad day!!

There's plenty of sources on the internet to find out, there are actually people who can do it for you, i had something translated into rune for a tattoo and now i'm having my next one in latin. As for names in Chinese, they should have a book of names in your nearest tattoo parlour as it is a popular choice of tattoo