Beautiful in Japanese?

How do I say "Beautiful" in Japanese? A friend of mine got a tattoo and I want to now how to say it in Japanese for her.

I know this, I know this! :D It's kirei.

Except if your American the first E is long pronounce it KI REE

"Kirei" is certainly "beautiful", but I doubt that a tattoo says "kirei". If it does, it would be pretty tacky. Is it perhaps the symbol shown on my title? If you can't read the font, is it the symbol shown before tha @ mark in the following website's up-left corner?
http://www.bia-nca.net/

If so, it's read "bi". The Chinese probably have a different way of reading it.
If it's not this symbol, post a photo or some kind of example. There are many words to discribe beauty.

When I read the first post, my immediate reaction was also "ӟ" instead of kirei.
In Chinese it is pronounced as "may".

everyones are right. but if your question means how to say "oh,you got a beautiful tatto. i like it."in japanese,we say "kiree" or "kirei". it is for conversation(speaking). I'm sorry my english is not good.

Just want to point out that the "bi" is not pronounced as "by" but more like "be" but a little shorter.

But maybe it could be kirei "ãY—í" I don't think it looks tacky at all.

So the question is: how many characters is your friend's tatoo?

Silly me. So you want to say, "(Your tattoo looks) beautiful!" Then "kirei" is the word. Or "kakko ii (cool!)" might be appropriate for most tattoos.

kakkoee means cool. i think thats the best thing to say. everyone likes to know that their tatoo is cool : )kirei means pretty. you could say " totemo kirei desu" which means it is very pretty.

Everyone here said to say "Kirei" which means "Pretty," but if you're trying to say "Beautiful" then that is "Utsukushii."

How do you say "Hello beautiful how are you" in japanese.

Uruwashii and utsukushii if you want to refer to her as a beautiful and lovely person.

Utsukushii

Very interesting threads, because this shows quite difficulties of Japanese words. He perhaps asked that "how can i say [your tatoo's beautiful] in Japanese?" or what. In this case, I recommend to say " Anata no tatoo wa *suteki* desu." means " your tatoo's nice(and cool)."
Why I use "suteki=nice" here because "utukushii" isn't used so often in oral communications. This will be more literary and formal. "Anata no tatoo wa *kirei* desu" is certainly appropriate, but sounds distant. IOW, the word "suteki" contains a speaker's honest feeling, and "kirei" seems descriptive. However, "kirei" is a good expression.
Though "utukushii" is a literally beautiful word itself, when we get this word as a compliment, we'll be embarrassed.
I know such a question is always hard to come to an end. After all, whatever is fine if you like it.

Someone suggested "Bi" (bee), but Bi alone means Beauty.
Bijin (bee jeen) means beautiful woman. Hardly appropriate for a tattoo!

Utsukushii.

Beautiful.

i'm pretty shore that's how to say it. so says about like 10 other websites.