The faithful dog. Everyone will think of Hachikō, and that's a good thing.

What a Japanese person actually thinks
Warm and instantly understood. Japanese people are genuinely sentimental about Hachikō, so this reads as a statement about devotion rather than as an animal noun.

Meaning

Literally: loyalty + dog
Actually: A loyal dog. Inseparably associated with Hachikō, who waited at Shibuya station for his dead owner for nine years.

Scores

Naturalness●●●●●

Real word, overwhelmingly used of Hachikō.

Coolness●●●●●

Adding 忠 fixes everything wrong with the bare 犬 — the loyalty is explicit and the lackey reading disappears.

Watch out

lowIt describes a dog, not a person. As a self-description it reads as 'I am devoted to someone', which may or may not be the note you want.

On skin

忠犬

Orientation: vertical

Brush.