Heart and mind in one character — a concept English has to use two words for.

What a Japanese person actually thinks
Warm and universally understood. Slightly common, but it never reads badly. The character itself is one of the most graceful in the language.

Meaning

Literally: heart
Actually: The heart-mind: emotion, intention and thought treated as one thing. Not the organ (that's 心臓).

Scores

Naturalness●●●●●

Everyday word.

Coolness●●●●●

Four strokes with beautiful asymmetry. It looks hand-made even when it's typeset.

Watch out

Nothing embarrassing lurking in here.

On skin

心

Orientation: either

Brush, definitely. This character is almost entirely about the curve of the first stroke — a mechanical font wastes it.