So my friend wants a tattoo that says ‘Rebel’ in Japanese (Hanzoku). Doing some searching I found 3 different ways of expressing it in Kanji:
* 叛賊 – rebel, ‘anti-thief’
* 反賊 – rebel, anti-burglar, rebel, traitor, robber
* 反俗 – resistance to convention / unconventional, anti- vulgar, customs, manners, worldliness, mundane things
The problem is, neither one of us is Japanese and I have no clue which one is correct. He already has four massive arm & leg sleeves covering his body and having misspelled Kanji added would be a real heartbreaker. We both love Japanese culture, and I was the one who gave him the idea for the tattoos he has now. He’s my best friend and I want to make sure his next tattoo is just as cool as the ones he has now. **Please help me!** He’s been asking me for advice for a week because I know more about Japanese culture than he does (took 4 years in high school), but this one is out of my area of knowledge. **どうもありがとう!**
4 comments
Tell him to have it say キチガイ and call it a day.
First off, r/translator is the usual go-to for this.
Second, I would advise *against* a tattoo if you can’t provide the answer yourself. Hell, even if you can. Your tattoo artist is similarly likely to make a mistake, after all.
With that in mind, the typical translation for ‘rebel’ is 反逆者, but I suspect this isn’t what you’re going for. As with how these usually go, nuance is a thing and differs by language.
If you want a tattoo that has the meaning of rebel, there is only one correct answer: ‘rebel’.
When you are a rebel you don’t need a tattoo to prove it. And why in Japanese? So people can wonder what mysterious word it is, and when he tells them they can be “wow, he’s such a rebel”.
This is so idiotic.
I’m not sure about Japanese, but if someone saw 叛賊 or 反賊 and interpreted it as Chinese, they’d definitely interpret it as traitorous thief/traitor