Oh when will we westerners learn. There's a reason why you don't see many Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, or other Asians walking around with any type of calligraphy inked on their skin.
So many times I'll see someone with a Kanji Tattoo and I have to try not to laugh with what they have inked on their skin.
1. Don't get your Name in Kanji. The reason being, if you have a foreign name, there's no Kanji word for it. In Japan, we the alphabet that's used for foreign names and word is Katakana. A lot of time, you'll end up like this guy 
who thinks he has his name Timothy, tattooed, when it really means "undeliverable service" or "lost delivery service." Sorry Tim. Better luck Next Time.
2. Kanji words in sentence are written Up and Down. Some people will get a Kanji tattoo that's left to write. Which will again find you with nothing but gibberish and have Japanese people laugh at you for showing it off. Like this guy. He think have Love Hurts on him 
. Separately the Kanji are Love and It Hurts. So his Tattoo translated would be, "Love...... Ow".
3. In Japanese, unlike English and Romance languages, you actually speak kind of backwards in most sentenced and a lot of the Kanji have double meaning. 
This girl think hers says Circle Seven.. while it's true, it also mean Seven Yen.. or better yet, 5 cents. Not sure you really want to walk around with that on.
4. Kanji must be written or tattooed very precisely. One slip up or an extra line here or there can complete distort the meaning and make it to nothing. Like this tattoo 
. Guy thinks it's cool, but he really just have gibberish on his arm.
5. And the Last but most important reason. Kanji tattooes while they maybe pretty and look cool most often then not by getting one, you are permanently scarring yourself and walking around with something that has absolute no meaning to it and you'll have people laugh at you.
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My college roommie got a kanji tattoo that she chose out of a book. She told me it was "kishi," which the book told her meant "warrior." One, I'm not convinced that kishi means warrior, I think it means "knight" (which is similar, but not the same.) Number two, my brother went through a phase where he was very into Japanese culture and had a screen name with the word kishi in it, and so I've seen & recognize what I accept to be the kanji for kishi:
? I don't assume it's correct, but I've seen it often enough that it's what my brain thinks about it.
Her tattoo did not even resemble that. I hope that her tattoo means warrior!
That said, I have a tattoo in a language I don't speak. (check out my icon!) It's Irish Gaelic, around my shamrock... But I took the translation from an Irish Gaelic Bible, and I had my aunts (who actually speak/write Gaelic!) double and triple check it for me... Even so, I don't reveal that I don't speak Gaelic unless someone specifically asks!
1Chaton this is the symbol for 'kishi' 岸 and it actually means beach.
2It's similar to the one I posted (but small enough on the computer I'm using that I can't really see any differences!) If I had a picture of my roommie's tattoo, I'd post it to see if you recognized it. I'll dig around on her facebook. I just don't like the idea of picking a tattoo off the wall no matter what it's a tattoo of.
3That Kanji itself.. to be used with anything that has to do the with word coast, river, or beach.
And the words for warrior is "bushi" and "musha". Both are equally acceptable.
4lol if she has the kanji "kishi" tattooed, then she has the kanji for "beach".
If she want wants the word for Warrior, she needs to get this
5Hmm. Warrior is two symbols? Then she definitely doesn't have it. I feel like she might have the first symbol, but without the little capital L-looking stroke on the bottom left, because I remember thinking it looked similar to a lower case, caligraphy t with some fanciness around the point where the cross. She definitely doesn't have the kanji for kishi. Alas, these are the risks you take when you get a tattoo completely spur of the moment.
6yeah, you use two kanjis for the word warrior. The first kanji (mu) means "strength," "bravery," or "weaponry" and the second kanji (sha) means "person." Translated it's warrior.
7The second one she can use, is "bu shi" 武士 is this one.
Here's a better picture.
Either one is fine, as both describe the samurai clans.
8Yep i got what i thought was warrior but im missing the second Kanji and the guy did it backwards from what i can tell its da same symbol even looks nice but man is it backwards. Listen to the article cause this guy is right.
9Another thing to consider is that in Japan tattoos are associated with the Japanese mafia (yakuza). Foreign travelers I know have been kicked out of traditional Japanese inns because of their ink, especially if kanji (Chinese characters) are involved and they are Asian. Many of these establishments have public baths in lieu of private ones inside each room, so one must don their birthday suits (and most likely be stared at by 90% of the Japanese they bathe with).
Just something to think about. Another thing to be careful about is getting a tattoo artist who knows what they are doing. I saw a girl with one for dream (yume) but the artist did the transfer backwards-- so the character was flipped the wrong way and now she's stuck looking silly.
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