Chinese Tattoo Character — Longevity

Sherri sent the following Chinese tattoo confirmation request and the images of her design:

"I got this years ago and have forgotten the meaning. Can you please help me? It is on the inside right ankle."

Hi Sherry,

This looks like a buddha design plus the Chinese character below it in simplified version of the word "longevity" or "long life". Correctly written, culturally non-invasive - not a worry.

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For more information on the differences between Simplified Chinese characters and Traditional Chinese characters, please refer to http://learnchineseez.com/learning-chinese-languages/ under "If you do want to learn Chinese characters, choose the appropriate system".

Steel or Iron?

Travis sent the following with a picture of his tattoo attached:

"My tattoo is located on my arm. When I was in the store they told me the symbol means "steel". The book I got it out of says the same but I looked up the symbol for steel and its not the same symbol. This is my only tattoo."

Hi Travis,

This is the simplified Chinese character of the word "iron". By itself I would probably not stretch it as far as "steel" - as steel is a byproduct of iron, and the word "steel" consists of one more characters.

The reason you see a different character is most likely because traditional Chinese characters are more commonly used in books outside of China (simplified Chinese is used in the People's Republic of China implemented as part of the pre-revolution (around 1950's), while Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most overseas Chinese communities continue to use traditional Chinese, which dates back much longer).