What does my tattoo say??

[Kat86]

So, on my 18th birthday I was extremely eager to get my first tattoo. I went with a friend to the first tattoo shop we came across without doing any research on the place. I didn't even know what i wanted to get. They had a huge board filled with what they said were different Chinese symbols and their meanings. I quickly chose the one that said beautiful. Fast forward to about 5 years later. I'm in the mall and a random lady stops me. She has a confused look on her face and she asked what my tattoo said. I proudly told her it meant beautiful. She laughed at me so hard and she says, "I don't know what that means, but I know for a fact that it doesn't mean beautiful."

Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I've tried looking online to see what it means but I can't seem to find this symbol anywhere. So I've been walking around with this random tattoo for 16 years. Does anyone know what it means?

[roddy]

佳 in the mirror? Is that what it actually looks like, or is this a mirror image?

[Lu]

3 hours ago, Kat86 said:

Fast forward to about 5 years later. I'm in the mall and a random lady stops me. She has a confused look on her face and she asked what my tattoo said. I proudly told her it meant beautiful. She laughed at me so hard and she says, "I don't know what that means, but I know for a fact that it doesn't mean beautiful."

Random lady was not very good at Chinese herself. It clearly says 佳, either correctly or mirrored, meaning 'good, fine, beautiful'. So it does say 'beautiful' or at least 'lufituaeb'.

[kanumo]

7 hours ago, Lu said:

So it does say 'beautiful' or at least 'lufituaeb'.

That is actually pretty funny and made me laugh longer than it should! Thanks for that ?

[杰.克]

8 hours ago, Lu said:

or at least 'lufituaeb'

 

lfor 

 

p.s first instinct was to go with lol, but then realised....

[Kat86]

Omg, YEARS of hiding this tattoo thinking that it might have said something crazy... for nothing. Very happy to find out it actually does mean beautiful. Thanks Lu.

 

Now, on to my quest to find that random lady who stressed me out for nothing lol.

 

By the way, that's a mirror image. Idk what I'd do if it said lufituaeb lol

[Lu]

20 minutes ago, Kat86 said:

By the way, that's a mirror image.

I'm so relieved.

[anonymoose]

I'm not a native chinese speaker, so I may be wrong, but I don't think that 佳 means "beautiful" in the aesthetic sense. I would say that "good" or "fine" is a more accurate translation. "Fine" can be used to describe lots of things, such as "fine food", "fine results", "fine health", "fine landscape", and in the latter example, could be interpreted as aesthetically "beautiful", but I don't think this is an intrinsic meaning of the character in isolation. On the other hand, "beautiful" can be used in an extended sense to mean "fine", as in "beautiful food", "beautiful results", and possibly, "beautiful health". I think it is only in this sense that 佳 could be construed as meaning "beautiful".

[johnvaradero]

Please correct me, if I’m wrong, @anonymoose or everyone else, I might very well be, but it seems to me "佳" can have the meaning of “beautiful” in the aesthetic sense and describe a person as such. I am thinking for example about the Chengyu “绝代佳人“, which the 中华成语大词典 defines as „绝代：当代独一无二；佳人：美人。当代最美的女人“. Doesn’t „最美的女人“ mean „the most beautiful woman“ in an aesthetic sense?  

 

The term „佳人“ is defined by the 现代汉语词典 as „美人“, the definition of „美人“ in the same dictionary is „美貌的女子“, which describes the aesthetic appearance of a woman.

 

As for „佳“ on it’s own, the 國語辭典 defines it as “美、好。如：「佳人」、「佳景」、「佳音」。So the first example the國語辭典 brings for the meaning of “佳“ is „佳人“.

 

In terms of how “佳“ on it’s own has been used in Classical Chinese, one example comes from „淮南子·修务训”. This work includes the phrase “形夸骨佳” which is defined here as “夸：柔软，美好。形容女子外貌美丽，体形优美”. Judging from this definition it seems to me “佳“ in this phrase describes the outward appearance/body shape and as such the aesthetic beauty of a person.  

[anonymoose]

As I said, I'm not a native speaker. Your evidence is fairly compelling. Nevertheless, this seems mainly based on classical Chinese (though I note the OP did not specify modern or classical chinese).

 

I can't add much more. I just go by what I've observed of modern Chinese as a learner. Maybe input from a native speaker would be useful.

[roddy]

I think you're right - if you were choosing a single character for 'beautiful', you wouldn't choose this one. But as random teenage tattoos go, it's a pretty lucky choice.

[Tomsima]

佳 is more like 'the best' or 'unparalleled (in some category)' to me

[Shelley]

According to the Outlier Simplified/traditional entry the man 人 component points to it applying to " person, having to do with people"  and "the original meaning - "beautiful and good" does appear to pertain to people.

 

From the other entries it also looks like beautiful is first on the list and does apply to people, the other meanings "fine and good" come in that order.

[Lu]

1 hour ago, Tomsima said:

佳 is more like 'the best' or 'unparalleled (in some category)' to me

I'd write 最佳 for that. Often seen in the names of prizes and awards.

[Tomsima]

2 hours ago, Lu said:

I'd write 最佳 for that

 

That's a good point, I was thinking of 最佳 and 佳餚 when I wrote that, and suppose the second doesn't necessarily connote the very best food, just very good food

[Jim]

Isn't it what they write when you get top marks for your assignment or am I misremembering?