myclaudia asked me to come up with a kanji for her to represent 'a desire to live life with grace, honor and love.' So after much puzzlement (which you can read about here), I picked 'toku', which is frequently translated 'virtue', but that's not quite it. 'Integrity' might be a little closer.(from the previous post): The flamelike shape in the bottom right corner is from a stylized drawing of a heart, and, as in english, heart denotes feeling or spirit. Above, an eye and a stylized crosspieced needle - a direct gaze, meaning 'direct' in general. The sort-of arrow looking thing off to the left is a radical meaning 'go' or 'move'. So this kanji means literally - "To move or act directly from the heart."
It seemed like it fit what she wanted - grace and honor and love as three aspects of the same thing.
All of which was well and good.... until I met
myclaudia and had a look at her neck, where the tattoo would go. And then I saw the Dragon, which coils all the way around her back, solid and black, a thing of beauty and power. And that would never do - the calligraphy looked fragile and spindly, so much chaff in the wind. So I redid it, still graceful but heavier and stronger, clawed edges and arched curves. And now I'm happy with it. Sorry for the delay, myclaudia!