So I’ve wanted gaara’s tattoo since I was a kid. I will admit I just thought he was really cool as a kid and wanted a cool tattoo.
The thing is my family hasn’t even lived in Japan since before ww2 they immigrated from there when my great great-great-grandmother passed and my great-great-grandfather wanted to remarry. I know in the eyes of Japanese nationals, especially being a mixed person who probably doesn’t look Japanese at all to them. That my grandmother who was 100% Japanese wouldn’t be considered Japanese in the same way thee see them selves as Japanese, so i especially wouldn’t be considered Japanese. Would I look like an idiot walking around in Japan with this kanji stamped onto my arm?
I want to be a teacher in Japan for some time once I finish college with a Japanese minor. So, I really don’t want to get any tattoos that would be looked down upon more than an average tattoo would there. I can’t tell if kanji would be considered like a ‘classy tattoo’ sort of how some in America are.
I don’t want to look like some idiot gaijin who has a cringy otaku tattoo when I live there. I don’t intend to ever get any that would be visible working in a school, but it’s a self harm cover up so it would be on my upper arm, visible with most women’s short sleeve shirts. I don’t really care about the American opinion as tattoos are not taboo here like they are in Japan and at the end of the day I want it to honor my grandmother who I never really got to know as she died by suicide when I was a toddler. It would also to honor my own struggles with depression and suicidal ideations, kinda like a ; tattoo but much less obvious.
I’ve loved gaara the character who has this tattoo, and see myself a lot in his character. I’m really stuck because I’ve wanted to get a scar cover up for a long time, I hate being judged for what I did to myself at the worst time in my life. I want to feel comfortable wearing short sleeves in public again, I really don’t want to be back in this hole of over self-consciousness for a ‘bad tattoo’ once I’m living in Japan, when I could’ve made a better choice.
by bluntgecko