淚
Symbols Emotions
tears
ㄌㄟˋ lèi
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.
The tears themselves — the water, distinct from the act of crying.
Before you commit
Choose with care淚 is the substance, not the emotion. On its own it can read as literal or a little melodramatic; 淚痕, a tear track, carries more.
At small sizes11 strokes and narrow. The three-dot water radical is the first thing to close up when it is inked small.
Cultural noteCrying imagery reads mournful to Chinese eyes and sits close to funerals. Expect the tattoo to be read as commemorating a loss, whether or not you mean it that way.
Meaning
A tear; tears.
The physical drop, with the water radical on the left.
Other characters for “tears”
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