Chinese Tattoo 善良: Meaning & Design Guide
善良 means “good and honest”, pronounced shàn liáng. Below: each character broken down, and how the phrase works as a tattoo.
Character by character
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Strokes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 善 | shàn | good, virtuous, charitable, kind | 12 |
| 良 | liáng | good, virtuous, respectable | 7 |
Per-character data: Unihan (Unicode).
Words using these characters
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 改善 | gǎi shàn | to make better; to improve | newest-5 |
| 慈善 | cí shàn | benevolent | newest-7 |
| 善良 | shàn liáng | good and honest | newest-5 |
| 良好 | liáng hǎo | good | newest-5 |
| 不良 | bù liáng | bad | newest-5 |
Words: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Related expressions
Placing 善良
善良 mixes heavy and light characters — the dense 善 (12 strokes) sits beside the lighter 良 (7) — so equal measured sizes can look uneven on skin. Ask your artist to match the optical weight instead, and to keep the baseline level across all 2 characters. It totals 19 strokes, so it needs a placement with room — the inner forearm or upper back rather than a narrow spot. 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 善良
善良 is a fixed expression meaning “good and honest”, read shàn liáng. Because it is set, swapping any character changes the meaning — have the exact wording checked by a native reader before it goes on skin. 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 善良 mean?
善良 means “good and honest”.
How is 善良 pronounced?
善良 is pronounced shàn liáng.
Is 善良 a fixed expression?
Yes — it is a set phrase, which is safer than assembling characters yourself. Fixed expressions keep their established wording and meaning.
How should 善良 be laid out?
Keep all characters the same size on an even baseline, and do not mirror or rotate any of them.
Which style suits 善良?
Bold regular script keeps every stroke clear. With multiple characters, avoid very fine or highly cursive styles — the smaller each character gets, the more the strokes merge.
Do I need to verify the phrase?
Yes. Confirm the wording, the meaning and the full context with a native reader, and check that the phrase is not a quotation about misfortune or parting.
How many strokes in total?
善良 is written with 19 strokes across 2 characters — which is why it needs more space than a single character.
Want 善良 as a ready-to-use stencil with a native-checked meaning card, sized for your tattoo artist?
✦ Get this designNot ready? Browse more characters · All 150+ characters
Character data: Unihan (Unicode) · words: HSK vocabulary & CC-CEDICT · How we verify this