For the Westerner Who Walked Into a Tattoo Shop and Realized They Couldn't Read Their Own Idea Chinese and Japanese characters have been the most-tattooed scripts in the West for thirty years - and the most badly-rendered. Mirror-flipped strokes. Dictionary entries the bearer can't read. Simplified-mainland glyphs paired with Tokyo-shop calligraphy in the same flash sheet. Nothing to look up before the needle drops. This book is the look-up. Eighty high-frequency characters and phrases - sixty single characters and twenty short phrases - every one given a four-page block: a brushed Japanese rendering, a traditional Chinese kaiti rendering, full Mandarin pinyin and Japanese on'yomi/kun'yomi, a nuance paragraph, a "Spotted On" celebrity-tattoo reference, three more brush-style alternatives on the verso, and a tear-out stencil page with the character pre-mirrored at three sizes for thermal/iron-on transfer. The 80 entries cover the high-frequency working set: love, dragon, tiger, strength, heart, fortune, the way, samurai, eternal, dream, Zen, honor, beauty, wind, fire, water, moon, sun, mountain, sea, heaven, god, phoenix, wolf, eagle, bear, horse, ghost, Buddha, compassion, wisdom, faith, virtue, loyalty, joy, quiet, peace, fate, soul, fly, battle, king, snow, shadow, light, thunder, snake, smile, cloud, flower, mirror - plus phrases including freedom, family, samurai, good luck, peace, invincible, kung fu, nirvana, wisdom, hope, fate, brothers, fated affinity, compassion, contentment, undying.

For each Part II phrase that doesn't translate cleanly between languages, both the Chinese and the natural Japanese form appear side-by-side. No layman mixing. Inside: 80 four-page entries · Yuji Boku brushed Japanese kaisho · LXGW WenKai TC traditional Chinese kaiti · Mandarin pinyin · Japanese on'yomi and kun'yomi · "Spotted on" celebrity-tattoo references · placement suggestions · trad-vs-simp warnings · tear-out stencils mirrored for iron-on transfer · QR code on every entry to the free companion site at kanji.xgar.com with 18 alternate fonts and downloadable PNG/PDF/SVG stencils at any size. For anyone who has thought about a Chinese-character tattoo and wanted to do it right. Book 9 of The Cowboy's Guide Series.