Chinese characters for family

Lettering · Black and grey · Flash

The image shows two stylised Chinese characters meaning family, written in a brush-like black stroke, with the English word Family set in a clean sans-serif typeface beneath them. The characters have tapered strokes and varied thickness, while the English word is in uniform black lettering. The design sits centred on a plain white background with no shading or colour.

Lettering Family Chinese character Script

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Auntie Mei,

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The sign went up on Thursday, the characters first and the English under them, because Mrs Okafor said the customers at the till would never read the top half. I did the brushwork myself while Dad held the ladder, which he hates. You can't rush a 家. The roof stroke has to be lifted off the paper like you're setting down a cup you're afraid of breaking, and the last dot of 庭 has to taper to nothing, or the whole thing looks like a child wrote it.

The stencil for the English was still in the van and nobody would let me touch it. Plain sans-serif, one colour, a hard black row of capitals. I said it looked like a bus timetable beside the brushwork. Mrs Okafor said that was the point. Between the two of them the shopfront finally says what it means: the old word and the plain one, one above the other, neither apologising.

Last night the rain came sideways off the car park and I stood under the new sign with a flask of tea, checking for drips in the ink. A woman came out of the chip shop with a paper bag, stopped, read the top, then read the bottom, and laughed at herself the way you do when you've been told a thing twice. She said, "Oh, that's us, then," and walked off towards the bus stop.

I'm sending you a photo. Tell me whether the 庭 looks right to you. Tell me honestly.

Love, Jun