The famous Zen 'mu'. Dense, serious, and genuinely loaded.

What a Japanese person actually thinks
Reads as someone who has read something. Serious and a little austere. Also a very common prefix (無料 free, 無理 impossible) so it's utterly familiar as a shape.

Meaning

Literally: nothing; without
Actually: Nothingness. Famous as the answer in the Zen kōan about whether a dog has Buddha-nature — the monk answers 'mu', and the point is that the question dissolves.

Scores

Naturalness●●●●●

Common character, real philosophical term.

Coolness●●●●●

Twelve strokes, strongly horizontal, four dots at the base. Excellent tattoo character — heavy without being cluttered.

Watch out

lowAs a prefix it just means 'un-' or 'no-'. Alone, the Zen reading dominates; the risk is only that a very literal reader parses it as an unfinished word.

On skin

無

Orientation: either

Bold brush. The four dots at the bottom should stay distinct — check the artist's spacing.