Chinese Tattoo Expert

About

Duane writing Chinese calligraphy with a brush

Duane Niu

Duane grew up in China and has practiced 欧体 (Ouyang Xun style) calligraphy since childhood. He taught ESL in China for about 9 years and holds an M.Ed from the University of Ottawa.

He started Chinese Tattoo Expert because too many tattoos end up wrong, meaningless, or unintentionally funny. One check by a calligrapher could easily have avoided many of those.

He knows Chinese culture and literature, so he can advise which characters or phrases best fit what you want to express. When he reviews a request, he reads your story. He may suggest a better word or a classic phrase, and he writes a short note on why.

Characters are suggested with AI help. Duane checks and corrects every one before anyone receives a stencil and a meaning note. He does not tattoo you. The form emails your request to him. There is no price on this site, and no promised reply date.

From Duane's brush

Practice pieces in 欧体 (Ouyang Xun) regular script, written by Duane.

三教殊源, practice calligraphy by Duane
三教殊源 (read right to left: sān jiào shū yuán, roughly 'the three teachings, different sources')
類聚群分, practice calligraphy by Duane
類聚群分 (lèi jù qún fēn, 'like gathers with like')

Stencil letters on the reading pages are set in LXGW WenKai (霞鹜文楷), © LXGW and the Klee Project Authors, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Those pictures are a font, not Duane's brush writing.

Go to the request form

What this site does

You type a name, a word, or a phrase. Characters are suggested with AI help. Then Duane, a native Chinese speaker and lifelong calligrapher, checks and corrects every one before anyone receives a stencil and a meaning note.

What this site does not do

It does not tattoo you, and it does not promise how the ink will look on skin. It does not send a character out until Duane has checked it. It does not take payment or open accounts. A suggestion on a meaning page is not an approval.