Chinese Tattoo for Karma

Beez emailed me and with this picture and asked this:

"I was told my tattoo was one from the phrase Karma.  More specifically, I was told it means cause and effect; or causality (Punitive Justices, Retribution for Sin, etc).  The tattoo is located on my back.  There are no other tattoos.  Lately, for whatever reason, I have just been paranoid the tattoo means something else - I don't really know why.  Thank you!"

Hi Beez,

Nothing to worry about. The tattoo says exactly what you think it means.

And a follow up from Beez:

Thanks so much.  You've made my day!

Chinese Symbol Tattoo - A Matter of Stroke Placement Error

                       

James asked this in a Chinese tattoo confirmation request:

"I have a kanji symbol for good/joy and I want to confirm the meaning... was I right about this one?"

Hi James,

The character is a bit hard to see, but appears to be an incorrectly written one meaning "virtuous", "good" or "kind" in Chinese. Please see the attached .jpeg file for the correct character (the two dots above the horizontal line and the square should be centered, not aligned to the left). Mistakes like this are extremely common when using tattoo parlor samples, etc. The good news is that's it's close enough so that I (and probably most Chinese speakers) would recognize it.

As for Kanji, my dictionary indicates that this character means more or less the same in Japanese.

Example of Chinese symbol tattoo meaning same thing as Japanese Kanji tattoo

Although there are many differences in meanings between Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji, there are also cases where they are written and used in the same context and that they do mean the same thing.

Here is a Chinese tatooo confirmation request below that illustrates the point:

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Hi,

I got this tattoo about 10 years ago.  The place I went to had a printed/published book which I got the symbol from.  The book said the symbol means "Will or determination".  I don't remember if it was Chinese or Japanese.  I've looked all over the web and cannot find it anywhere.

Thank you very much,

Brian

Hi Brian,

Not a worry - this is exactly what you think it means, both in Chinese character and in Japanese Kanji, and a good choice for a tattoo. * The free samples on my site contain only a very general idea of words, i.e. the word "will/determination" would vary depending on one's target/what one's after. But the design that you have is commonly used as a highly regarded virtue in the Chinese culture, all the way since the School of Confucian began in China.

It's nice to do a confirmation once in a while that isn't bad news!