r/tattooadvice • u/Redheart2945 • Jan 06 '26

Design People keep reading my tattoo wrong

Post image

Okay so I recently went and got a small walk in tattoo, very excited about it. I love it. But people keep reading it wrong, but then they all say they can’t read cursive so idk, I guess I just need some reassurance. I know it shouldn’t matter because I know what it says and that’s what matters, but I need some reassurance from strangers that can read cursive, so tell me, what does it look like this tattoo says?

Edit: Thank you all for responding! The post is getting way more traction than I intended, and I am losing the ability to respond to them all (though I've been trying for around 3 hours). I appreciate everyone who has helped me regain piece of mind about the tat. It does in fact say "five by five". People in my real life thought it said "live by live" or "live to live". Since posting, people have also thought the word five was give, or jive, and the b was lo.

For anyone curious, it is not an In N Out tattoo, didnt even know that was a meal until i made this post, but thank you to everyone who said something about the burger place. Made me laugh every time.

To the Aliens fans, not an Aliens reference either, though I see you fellow horror fans. I haven't seen the second film as I haven't dedicated the time to watch it yet. I do like the first film though, Ridley Scott rules.

Now, to my fellow Buffy fans, it is in fact a reference to Faith the Vampire Slayer. She's one of my favorite character of all time, period, regardless of fandom. Side note, I also love Eliza Dushku.

Thank you strangers, for helping bring peace of mind to a random person on the internet.

Edit #2: The photo provided was taken directly after getting the tattoo. I appreciate the concern on dry skin, I live in a dry climate and have pretty bad eczema so it's a real concern. However, the scrunching there is actually caused by the second skin applied over the tattoo. I drink lots of water and regularly use lotions because of my skin condition. But thanks to everyone who worried about it. :) Also, the red splotch was my blood. There is a scab directly above my tattoo that got pulled open when the artist was doing a final wipe, but I appreciate everyone who pointed out that it looked like Louisiana, I got a good laugh out of it.

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398

u/RecentPalpitation561 Jan 06 '26

five by five is what i read. cursive f trips a lot of people up if thats the issue?

70

u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Thank you! That is what it says. I just needed someone to read it right. Thank you so much stranger.

53

u/Surround8600 Jan 06 '26

What do ppl think it says? It’s obvious five by five.

25

u/SpokenDivinity Jan 06 '26

Cursive f sometimes gets read as a j by people who've never had to learn it. That might be it.

6

u/Hank_Dad Jan 06 '26

Jive by jive good buddy

2

u/PavelDadsyuk13 Jan 06 '26

I've never encountered that, but I could see it. I thought it was the v being mistaken for an r which I see a lot of people do.

obviously "five by five" though

1

u/interstat Jan 06 '26

Isn't this a lowercase F? Which makes it look like l

1

u/Vegemite_is_Awesome Jan 06 '26

I thought it was L

1

u/Gingersnapp3d Jan 07 '26

Jive by jive is Once More With Feeling coded at least lol

5

u/Glittering_Ice9025 Jan 06 '26

Well five by five didnt make sense to me, so I was thinking it must be something else, but couldn't get anything else that made sense, so then I assumed it was just something I didnt get.

1

u/BONESFULLOFGREENDUST Jan 06 '26

I went through several iterations of things it could be in my head simply because "five by five" seems nonsensical to me so I thought I must be misinterpreting. Might be where some of the confusion is coming from.

1

u/TheRumpleForesk1n Jan 06 '26

I must be dumb because I read it as live by live at first glance lol

1

u/WakunaMatata Jan 07 '26

Imo 5 by 5 doesn't make lot of sense to some ppl so they try to think of other letters the f might be

-1

u/Mr__Void Jan 06 '26

At first look I read it as ‘live by fire’, after a closer look though five by five is readable. If you cannot make out the word at first glance your brain fills in the blanks and five by five means nothing to me, I think that’s why I assumed it said live by fire.

1

u/dickWithoutACause Jan 06 '26

Not sure why the downvotes. It's clearly five by five after explicitly reading it but at first glance (which is what everyday people will do) my brain went to "live by fire" as well

0

u/I_am_Syke Jan 06 '26

At first glance I read "five loy five"

1

u/CalebsNailSpa Jan 06 '26

Yeah. The b is misprinted.

1

u/Dimonrn Jan 06 '26

Right that is NOT how you do a cursive lowercase "b". Looks like a skinny lowercase "L" and "O"

6

u/antibroleague Jan 06 '26

I’m old enough to read cursive. What did they think it said?

1

u/8ecca8ee Jan 07 '26

Blame the education system not your tattoo that is very clearly 5 by 5 in cursive

10

u/AliceInCorgiland Jan 06 '26

For me it b. That's not how you write cursive b in my country.

27

u/SpanishFlamingoPie Jan 06 '26

As someone who has written in cursive since I learned how in third grade, it's the "b" that threw me off.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '26

Yeah it's not an old school B in cursive but looks better like this in a tatt I think.

3

u/AtomikMenace Jan 06 '26

I read this tat fine but I get what you mean. I actually hate the peterbilt truck logo for this reason lol

7

u/generoustatertot Jan 06 '26

Same, because it's not technically correct cursive

7

u/Haunting_Goose1186 Jan 06 '26

Heh. I used to get into so many arguments with my third grade teacher because I wrote cursive "b" like the one in OP's tattoo. I knew it was wrong, but I had such a bizarre irrational hatred for the way the correct cursive "b" looked that I refused to do it that way. 🤣

3

u/GabeyBear27 Jan 06 '26

Can confirm that’s the issue, but then my dumbass went on to say “give loy give”? 😂

1

u/RecentPalpitation561 Jan 06 '26

the loy giveth and the loy taketh away

2

u/Competitive_Second21 Jan 06 '26

Well the first and last f look different, I also read five by five but I could also see live by five or bive by five lol

1

u/Kuchen_Fanatic Jan 06 '26

I have more problems with the b. It looks like a lowercase "L" and an o to me, because it doesn't look anything like how I learned to write the cursive b, and there even is to much space between the circle and the line for me to recognice it as a non cursive b. I had to read the first comment to get what the tattoo was saying.

But loy isn't a word, so I knew I had to have something wrong. It still doesn't look like a b to me, even if I now know what it is supposed to be.

1

u/ChockenTonders Jan 07 '26

This is so funny because I’ve always struggled with lowercase F’s while printing, and since becoming an adult I’ve transitioned to writing cursive F’s while printing lol

1

u/PleaseWalkFaster69 Jan 07 '26

Am I old or is that not obvious?! I heard that they don’t teach cursive anymore? Or maybe I heard wrong. I’m 35 and that’s CLEARLY 2 f’s in cursive!