Chinese Tattoo 勤: Meaning, Strokes & Design Guide
The character 勤 means "industrious, diligent, attentive" and is pronounced qín. Below: its structure, the words it appears in, and how it works as a tattoo.
Quick facts
| Character | 勤 |
| Pinyin | qín |
| Meaning | industrious, diligent, attentive |
| Strokes | 13 |
| Radical | ⼒ (No. 19) |
Words that contain 勤
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 勤奋 | qín fèn | hardworking | newest-5 |
| 辛勤 | xīn qín | hardworking | newest-7 |
| 后勤 | hòu qín | logistics | newest-7 |
| 勤劳 | qín láo | hardworking | newest-6 |
| 勤快 | qín kuài | diligent; hardworking | newest-7 |
| 殷勤 | yīn qín | politely | newest-7 |
Words and levels: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Characters sharing the ⼒ radical
All of these share the ⼒ radical, so they are visually related — useful when you compare designs.
Placing 勤
勤 runs to 13 strokes, which is dense for a single character. At small sizes the inner strokes close up and the character stops being readable — this one wants a larger placement (upper back, thigh, forearm) rather than a wrist or ankle. Tell your artist the intended size before the stencil is cut, because a design that reads at 8 cm can collapse at 4 cm. Bring the stencil together with the pinyin and the meaning, and ask the artist to follow the stencil rather than redrawing the character freehand — freehand redrawing is the most common way a correct character loses a stroke and becomes a different one.
Design notes for 勤
勤 appears both on its own and inside compounds, so the sense depends on context; here it reads “industrious, diligent, attentive”. Regular script (楷书) keeps every stroke countable, which matters when a Chinese reader checks it. Avoid mirroring or rotating the character, and avoid very fine or cursive styles at small sizes, where strokes merge into a shape that reads as a different character.
Frequently asked questions
What does 勤 mean?
勤 (qín) means “industrious, diligent, attentive”.
How is 勤 pronounced?
勤 is pronounced qín in Mandarin.
How many strokes does 勤 have?
勤 has 13 strokes, under the ⼒ radical (No. 19).
How large should a 勤 tattoo be?
With 13 strokes, 勤 is moderately dense — it stays legible from roughly 4–5 cm upward. Shrinking it below that risks the strokes merging.
Which style works for 勤?
Bold regular script (楷书) keeps the strokes clear. Semi-cursive (行书) adds flow but softens edges. Seal script looks classical but is harder for most readers to verify — use it only if a native reader has confirmed the rendering.
Is 勤 common in modern Chinese?
It appears in everyday words such as 勤奋、辛勤、后勤, though it is more often used inside compounds than alone.
Should I use simplified or traditional 勤?
勤 is written the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose.
Want 勤 as a ready-to-use stencil with a native-checked meaning card, sized for your tattoo artist?
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Character data: Unihan (Unicode) · words: HSK vocabulary & CC-CEDICT · How we verify this