Strength

Reader anonymous emails:

"Good afternoon, Tian. I have been visiting Hanzi Smatter for some time now. Quite hilarious really. Anyway, an acquaintance recently got a tattoo of, what they think to be, the word "strength". Now, I have usually seen 力 being the kanji for those duties, but that is not the case here. I have looked up several kanji that could mean strength (thinking 強 was the better option), but I have not seen the kanji in the attached photo before, and can't find the true meaning of it anywhere. Any help?

I am sure she thought, whole-heartedly, that it meant 'strength' at the time she got it done. I am also sure she intended it to impress someone who was "into" Japanese or the like. Aside from the tattoo not meaning exactly what they intended - at least it isn't horrible (like explosive poo, or something). The muddiness of the calligraphy itself, however, lends me to think she didn't take much care in picking, at the very least, a good tattoo artist."

The character 豪 means "brave, heroic, chivalrous" and "person with outstanding talent". In Japanese it would also mean "fine feathers/writing brush/a little", as well as phonetically used to represent "Austrilia" as in 豪州. 自豪 means "[self] pride". I am still curious about why this person got a tattoo in a language that she does not understand.