Chinese Tattoo 鲸: Meaning, Strokes & Design Guide
The character 鲸 means "whale" and is pronounced jīng. Below: its structure, the words it appears in, and how it works as a tattoo.
Quick facts
| Character | 鲸 |
| Pinyin | jīng |
| Meaning | whale |
| Strokes | 16 |
| Radical | ⿂ (No. 195) |
Words that contain 鲸
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 捕鲸 | bu3 jing1 | to whale; to hunt whales | — |
| 白鲸 | bai2 jing1 | beluga whale | — |
| 蓝鲸 | lan2 jing1 | blue whale | — |
| 虎鲸 | hu3 jing1 | orca; killer whale (Orcinus orca) | — |
| 须鲸 | xu1 jing1 | baleen whale | — |
| 鲸波 | jing1 bo1 | huge wave or breaker | — |
Words and levels: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Placing 鲸
鲸 runs to 16 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 鲸
鲸 appears both on its own and inside compounds, so the sense depends on context; here it reads “whale”. 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 鲸 mean?
鲸 (jīng) means “whale”.
How is 鲸 pronounced?
鲸 is pronounced jīng in Mandarin.
How many strokes does 鲸 have?
鲸 has 16 strokes, under the ⿂ radical (No. 195).
How large should a 鲸 tattoo be?
With 16 strokes, 鲸 is moderately dense — it stays legible from roughly 4–5 cm upward. Shrinking it below that risks the strokes merging.
Which style works for 鲸?
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 鲸 common in modern Chinese?
It appears in everyday words such as 捕鲸、白鲸、蓝鲸, though it is more often used inside compounds than alone.
Should I use simplified or traditional 鲸?
鲸 is written the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose.
Want 鲸 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