刺青 - Chinese Characters for Tattoo | Meaning, Pronunciation & Cultural Context #1866316 (License: Personal Use)

The characters 刺青 (pronounced cì qīng) form a traditional Chinese term for tattoo, where 刺 means “to prick” or “to pierce,” and 青 refers to the blue-green pigment historically used in tattooing. Though modern Mandarin often uses 纹身 (wénshēn), 刺青 remains prevalent in literary, artistic, and regional contexts-especially in Taiwan and among tattoo communities valuing classical aesthetics.

This image is typically used on language-learning sites, cultural explainers, tattoo studio pages, or design resources to illustrate the written form and etymology of “tattoo” in Chinese. It serves users searching for character meanings, calligraphy examples, or cultural background for body art terminology.