Did my tattoo artist do the wrong character? Please help translate

[signal]

Hello everyone!

 

I had a tattoo done years ago, thinking at the time that I had "loyalty" done.

 

But now I'm not so sure, as many chinese people I know can't decipher what was tattooed on me. According to them, it is an incomplete character - in that it's full meaning can only be realized if there was another character. I'm bummed to say the least - as I've been carrying the tattoo for years now.

 

Anyhow, I've attached a picture of the tattoo.

 

I hope you guys and girls can help translate it for me.

 

 

Thank you very much!

[onebir]

Looks a bit like tea 茶... loyal-tea?

[eddyf]

Looks like 榮 to me. It means flourishing/honorable/glorious. Sure, it's not really a standalone word in modern Mandarin but most characters are like that. Either way it doesn't mean "loyalty".

[signal]

Oh okay - honorable is close enough, as long as it won't be commonly misconstrued as anything else

[Kamille]

But now I'm not so sure, as many chinese people I know can't decipher what was tattooed on me.

 

Well they might be ABC's who can't read Chinese of something because it's very easy to decipher read. The calligraphy isn't very imaginative but I wouldn't say it's a bad tattoo. 

Also, as eddyf said, you shouldn't worry too much about the fact that this character is there alone. Sure in Modern Chinese it needs to be accompanied to really mean something but in Classical Chinese it's totally fine alone, like in this quote from the Tao Te Ching : 知其榮，守其辱.

[lips]

榮 is used commonly in modern mandarin: 榮任、榮穫、榮膺、殊榮、茵茵向榮。Not sure if these are "standalone use" or part of a word.

IMHO it's OK to be used by itself as a tatoo, as long as that's what you mean, as in #3 .

[Flickserve]

Hello everyone!

I had a tattoo done years ago, thinking at the time that I had "loyalty" done.

But now I'm not so sure, as many chinese people I know can't decipher what was tattooed on me. According to them, it is an incomplete character - in that it's full meaning can only be realized if there was another character.

h!

it's actually a fairly common name. There was a famous Hong Kong singer called Leslie Cheung who has this character as part of his name.

[anonymoose]

Shouldn't 荣 have a 木 at the bottom and not a 朩, or is this an acceptable variant?

[Hofmann]

The widest part is usually 冖, as written in the tattoo, although a minority of renditions feature a full 木 with its last two strokes being the widest.

 

In some cases, this is (was) not nearly as common, as in 樂, 業.

 

The ROC MOE standard forms are less likely to change a narrow 木 at the bottom into a full 木, e.g. 榮, 樂, 業.

[lips]

Actually the traditional character 榮 is commonly written with a hook at the bottom in kaishu and xingshu ever since they first appeared.

[signal]

Thanks guys/girls! Following your advice, I was able to view the proper character. It's because my muscles atrophied and hypertrophied since the creation, so it seemed very obscure for me!

 

I couldn't even get an ocr-scanner (google's) to figure it out!

 

I finally can rest my mind regarding this tattoo !

 

Sorry for the re-post on a different thread - I didn't think this was made it through upon submitting as it didn't show immediately in the forum. It was not due to me being impatient