ABSTRACT
Westerners sporting Chinese character tattoos are often ridiculed and criticized on the grounds that such tattoos are prone to contain various grammatical and semantic mistakes, as well as aesthetic flaws. In addition, many even go as far as suggesting that any tattoo containing Chinese characters inked on a person who is not a member of the so-called “Chinese character cultural sphere” is an instance of objectionable cultural appropriation, and a bad idea in general, especially if the tattooed individual cannot read Chinese or Japanese. The present chapter critically explores these negative themes, and argues that they are often misleading.
