Kanji are Japanese characters that represent an entire word instead of a letter. A trail of Kanji is tattooed down the spine with the intention of the symbols signifying a person's attributes, such as strength, or for certain members of their families or friends. Common Kanji tattoos are the symbols for friendship, love and mother and father. Contact a linguist or a university's language department for a correct translation, for most English names do not translate into Kanji symbols.
Dragons, lizards or snakes are animals that have vertical, long bodies that will flow down the spine. A tattoo design with one of these animals as one large image places the head or the tail of the animal at the top of the spine, or placing the head or tail curling over the shoulder. Another option is a design made up of several, small animals that are connected by the tail. Individually, the small animals can be different colors to represent life stages or people, in the tattooed person's life.
A feminine option for a spine tattoo is flowers. Depict the flowers in a chain like sequence down the spine or in a vertical line separated with leaves in between. Choose a specific amount of flowers for the tattoo to symbolize number of your children or amount of years married.