to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 3:42 PM
subject: Tattoo
Hello, I found your blog randomly through "stumbling" and thought I'd toss my tattoo your way. When I got it I thought it meant "calmness" (out of a book at at tattoo parlor I worked for when I was young and dumb).
A few months later, a Japanese exchange student came in and told me it meant "lonely." So I just thought it would be interesting to see if you concur. Sorry it's a little blurry (also the artist used a tattooing method to make it look "brushed on"...and it's old at this point).
Thanks,
Wendi
寂 has multiple meanings when it is used alone. When read as Chinese, it can be interpreted as "solitary". However if it is read as Japanese, it would mean "lonely".
In Japanese, 寂しい (sabishii) with the kana ending しい (shii) is an adjective that does mean "lonely" or "sad."
ReplyDeleteHowever, the character 寂 alone is read "sabi."
Sabi is said to be one of the defining characteristics of traditional Japanese artistic sensibility and can mean various things such as quiet simplicity, a patina on metal or beauty acquired through age.
This is actually a pretty cool tattoo and the tattooist may have even intentionally blurred the edges of the character to give it a sort of "aged" sabi look.