失
Symbols Emotions
disappointment
望
ㄕ ㄨㄤˋ shī wàng
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Hoping for something and getting less — the small collapse when it does not arrive.
Before you commit
Choose with careNo single character says disappointment plainly. 悵 comes closest but reads as wistful melancholy, and a reader will take it that way rather than as disappointment.
At small sizes5 plus 11 strokes as a pair. 失 is very open and 望 is not, so keep them evenly spaced.
Cultural note失望 is used of people as well as outcomes: 對你失望 means you have let me down. As a tattoo it can read as an accusation aimed at someone.
Meaning
Disappointed; hope lost.
Literally losing what you were looking towards. The everyday word.
Other characters for “disappointment”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts