Oriental Wisdom For Your Tattoo

Tired of tattoo designs that are mediocre and boring? Need something wild?  Maybe.

Well, if you are looking for something exotic as tattoos, you don’t want to miss this post. I’ve got the names of the ancient Chinese divine beasts for you.  Sounds interesting? The characters here are so complicated that they are beyond most Chinese people (including me as well) to figure out. From a Chinese perspective, I’m confident to claim that they are absolutely cool for ink with which you are ready to blow people away. Check it out.

麒麟 qi lin

Qilin is a creature with the head of a Chinese dragon, the antlers of a deer, the skin and scales of a fish, the hooves of an ox and tail of a lion. Besides, it is often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body. As a righteous creature, Qilin is usually associated by people with luck and prosperity.

狻猊 suan ni

A lion-like creature that is usually seen in temples. Suan ni is awe-inspiring and is associated with Buddhism by people.

趴蝮 ba xia

A gracefully-shaped creature that is usually used to decorate the pillars of bridges.

椒图 shu tu

A clam-like creature that is usually seen painted on doors. As shu tu often likes to close its mouth so tightly, people have such wish that by painting it on the door, dangers won’t be able to find its way through the door.

狴犴 bi an

Bi an is a tiger-like creature with tremendous strength. It usually appears on the gates of prisons to thrill the convicts.

赑屃 bi xi

Bi xi is a huge tortoise-like creature that is good at carrying weights. It’s mostly seen in temples, and is said to bring good luck to those by touching it.

饕餮 tao tie

A wolf-like creature that is seen as a gobbling evil beast. While in nowaday time, 饕餮 is a pretty cool word to use for Chinese and is seen a lot on commercials. Personally I highly suggest this one because it’s cool in shape and quite common in daily usage among Chinese.

睚眦 ya zi

A jackal-like evil beast known for its sanguinariness. It appears a lot on the sheath of daggers or swords to indicate cruelty. Again, it would be a nice one for ink, because the characters look cool, and the meaning doesn’t make Chinese uncomfortable at all, judging from my point of view.