Wednesday, January 11, 2006

"Peace, Happiness, Love, Chaos"


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A51216/high/bmepb183810.jpg

This tattoo was submitted to BMEzine's tattoo gallery by Scott of S & J Tattoos in Lancaster, CA.

The photo's caption said the four characters are "Japanese text for Peace, Happiness, Love, and Chaos".

I have never seen any "happiness" character is written as the second character shown here in my life. I am curious about where did Scott got the design from.

Plus the last character 屯 does not really mean "chaos". There was a detailed discussion about it.
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11 comments:

  1. zenbowlJanuary 11, 2006 at 3:03 PM

    I think that might be "道", or "dao". I've never seen dao used to mean happiness, though.

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  2. CallumJanuary 11, 2006 at 5:54 PM

    Wow, I just heard you on KCRW via NPR... I can now pronounce the website name too!

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2006 at 7:19 PM

    personally it looks like 酒 to me.

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  4. IdleJanuary 11, 2006 at 11:56 PM

    Common mistake, 平taken by itself in Japanese means flat. People often seem to take it from 平和 which means peaceful with the 和 meaning peace (or Japan). I couldn't say what the Chinese readings are.
    Last seen by me in an airport on a girls shoulder, no she wasn't 平

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  5. tze mingJanuary 12, 2006 at 12:07 AM

    I think it could be a massacred 草写 version of 福, going by the sort of spiral form for the 田 particle. But really, who could tell.

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  6. PengJanuary 12, 2006 at 2:39 AM

    I think it's probably the caoshu (curved) style of 福. I have tried some caoshu fonts to compare with the tattoo (http://www.pengguo.com/yingxiang/out/fu_caoshu.png) , but it seems that it's just bad caoshu writing.

    I also tried with 道 and 酒:
    http://www.pengguo.com/yingxiang/out/dao_caoshu.png
    http://www.pengguo.com/yingxiang/out/jiu_caoshu.png

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2006 at 7:28 AM

    All Japanese words I find for happiness are two kanji at least.

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  8. xenobiologistaJanuary 13, 2006 at 12:15 PM

    Speaking of peace, is there a difference in meaning or usage between ping2an1 or he2ping2?

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  9. tianJanuary 13, 2006 at 1:56 PM

    In Chinese, 平安 is "peaceful, safe", and 和平 is "peace".

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  10. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2006 at 10:31 AM

    i think its supposed to be 縁

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  11. MarcusJanuary 28, 2006 at 9:08 PM

    anonymous, there are several words with one kanji that express happiness, but even more one kanji that represent happiness, even on it's own. 幸い、幸せ（"saiwai" or "shiawase"), 嬉しい (ureshii). 福 (fuku) represents happiness as well, and in the expression 喜怒哀楽 meaning "emotions" 喜 represent happiness.

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