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Tattooing has seen an upsurge in the recent years. It still goes strong with a lot of people getting interested to display a body art. The list includes both men and women who want to show off a sexy or masculine tattoo. The fact that tattoos were initially related to ancient cultures is gone into the oblivion and tattoo artists are making more money than ever with the business seeing new heights. While getting a tattoo is becoming a fashion statement, the number of people wanting to have a unique tattoo that is not yet done by anyone is taking the lead. In such situations all you can do is design your own tattoos.

There are many tattoo artists who have specialized in providing personal and unique tattoos that are not replicated from anyone. While they charge quite a fortune for a single elaborate tattoo, you can think about doing it yourself rather than spending such a huge amount. There are various websites that help you design your own tattoos. You can browse on the internet and choose the website that has a growing number of satisfied users.

Basically these websites require you to choose the spot you want to tattoo. You need to explain whether you want a textual tattoo or a design tattoo. If you want a textual tattoo then you need to specify the font you want and the text you want. You can mix match and see what you like the best. For design tattoos, you can choose the categories like Celtic tattoos, Chinese tattoos, Japanese tattoos, African tribal tattoos, etc. Once you choose the spot and the type of tattoos, you can find many tattoo designs that you can get done. When you design your won tattoos, you can even have a design along with a text to make it more personal.

But there is nothing like sitting down to design your own tattoos after seeing a number of tattoos. The tattoo that you design would have your own individuality sparking out of it. You can even go ahead to take the advice of a professional tattoo designer to help you with your design. Sometimes when you browse through a lot of designs, you feel that you can mix match and create a brand new tattoo design that would suit your style. So, just give your creative jinx a push and design your own tattoo that has not yet been seen on anyone else.

Sometimes it becomes really difficult for a tattoo enthusiast to locate a unique tattoo piece. In such scenario Japanese tattoo symbols can serve the purpose right. There are different types of Japanese styles that can be incorporated in a tattoo pattern to create a distinct tattoo pattern.

Japanese are known to be highly talented and creative people who have fathered several breakthroughs. One of the fields where their craftsmanship and creativity has gained them popularity is the art of tattooing. There are several Japanese tattoo symbols that are being highly preferred by tattoo enthusiasts all across the world.

The subtle beauty and distinct visual appeal of Japanese tattoo symbols are making the symbols highly popular. These symbols are inspired from Japanese art and culture and hence they need to be properly researched prior getting inked. Since a tattoo is a thing that will remain with you for a long time, so always prefer making all possible efforts to get the right one inked by the right artist.

There are different Japanese symbols from which tattoo patterns are derived. Most of the Japanese tattoos have heavily written symbols that can be classified into following three main categories.

Kanji Symbols

Kanji is one of the most popularly used Japanese tattoo symbols. Its subtle beauty lies in its artistic and expressive patterns. It is believed that there are more than 40,000 kanji symbols and each of them represents a different meaning.

Availability of larger number of symbols allows the tattoo enthusiasts to experiment with different symbols or even opt for combination of number of different kanji symbols to create a trendy and unique tattoo design, expressing wide variety of ideas and messages.

Hiragana Symbols

Some of the Japanese tattoo symbols are also derived from Hiragana which is a type of Japanese writing style. Unlike kanji that often appear to be abstract symbols, hiragana is widely used in Japan for writing purposes including in print media and is easily open to literal translation.

Often consisting of rounded and cursive letters, hiragana when used in tattoo work makes the art piece classy. In fact, sometimes a hiragana style of tattoo is also referred to as cursive tattoo.

Katakana Symbols

The third type of Japanese symbol is the katakana symbol that is similar to Hiragana. Originally based on kanji, both Hiragana and Katakana have gradually developed into their distinct forms, having their own set of nearly 46 symbols from which different words can be formed.

Though similar to Hiragana, Katakana varies in its style. Unlike Hiragana, the letters in katakana have sharper edges and are more angular. They are mostly used to represent words that are non-Japanese in origin.

Japanese tattoo art is gaining immense popularity in the recent times. Their amazing and unique tattoo designs have made them the preferred choice of many tattoo fans.

Over the years, Japanese tattoo designs have become very popular among the tattoo enthusiasts all across the globe. Generally these tattoos are called irezumi in Japanese which means insertion of ink in the skin to leave a permanent mark. Tattoos are an old concept in Japan. The indigenous people of Japan used tattoos for decorative and social purposes. However, a tattoo in Japan is also associated with the symbol of a yakuza (Japanese mafia) that is perceived negatively by the people.

There are basically three sets of Japanese characters – hiragana, katakana and kanji that are used in tattoo art. Each set has its own history, function and style. Hiragana comprises simple, rounded character, representing sound but with no independent meaning, Katakana comprises simple, angular characters with no independent meaning and Kanji represents characters that have definite meaning and are most popular. Once you are aware of these different styles you can opt for the one that suits your preference.

Among all the Japanese tattoo designs the Kanji style tattoos and the animal tattoos are most popular. Kanji tattoos comprise calligraphic letter writing of the Japanese. It usually depicts marvelous curved letters, depicting thousands of words. Some of the words that are highly and commonly preferred by the tattoo fans include ‘love’, ‘loyalty’, ‘happiness’, ‘duty’ and many more.

Japanese tattoos are mostly done on the upper arms, legs, chest and shoulders and even on the palm of the hand. Usually these designs take few sittings and long hours and hence it is suitable for those who are ready to devote much of their time for this body art patiently. Moreover, to get it right you also need to hire a professional translator who could pick out the perfect character combination for you, thus escalating your tattooing cost.

Some popular Japanese Tattoo Designs

Koi fish tattoo: It is a beautiful tattoo design that is associated with good luck, strength and power. It is usually very colorful and is often combined with a complementary background like splashing water. Fascinating design coupled with good symbolism makes Koi fish tattoo a preferred choice of many tattoo enthusiasts.

Cherry Blossom tattoo: It is the other common and preferred Japanese tattoo design that depicts beautiful flowers. This design inter-relates beauty with life. The design is a powerful reminder to the people to make their life beautiful and lovely.

There are several other Japanese tattoo designs that include

1. Animal images like horse, dragons, ox, birds etc
2. Human figures depicting masked men, warriors, ancient deities, young ladies etc
3. Landscapes and architectural beauties like scenic landscape, temples etc