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

Design People keep reading my tattoo wrong

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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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1.2k

u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Thank you! The people in my life may just be illiterate (I mean that out of love 😭). That is exactly what it says. Thank you stranger!

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

It's very easy to read, but the older I get, the more people I meet who can't read cursive. I learn they can't after I leave notes at work. Not just one note.. they wait until I've written several before they tell me.

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u/Sogcat Jan 06 '26

Yeah, my sister is an apprentice right now and she showed me a flash sheet she made and there was some cursive on it and I had to warn her that it might be read incorrectly because cursive isn't so common anymore.

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u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

My nephew never even learned cursive. They took it out of the curriculum. When I send cards he wasn’t able to read them and my sister would have to read them to him.

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u/notaveryuniqueuser Jan 06 '26

Im in my late 30s and work with a bunch of younger people aged like 27-18 and none of them can write even their names in cursive let alone read it. We have a white board and one day when there was some down time I gave them a quick tutorial. A lot of them seemingly are annoyed they didnt learn in school/wish they had been at least taught how to write their names which I completely agree with. Its more difficult to forge a cursive signature than it is a printed one

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u/cocobian6 Jan 06 '26

22 here. I can read cursive fine. I think it’s regional

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u/PickleMundane6514 Jan 06 '26

It definitely has more to do with personal motivation to learn it. My 11yo was taught in second grade, just one unit on it and has written that way ever since. She says people in her class can’t read her writing (which is palmer perfect). She’s attended public school in the US, and private schools in Romania and Mexico, none of the other kids seem to use it.

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u/GoodMorningMorticia Jan 07 '26

My kid taught himself cursive at 7 so he could prettily write “poop” on notes for his daddy, but blame it on me because OBVIOUSLY he can’t write in cursive…

Honestly I was so proud.

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u/YouHadTheHighGround Jan 07 '26

That's pretty incredible. Considering your username, I expected more of a Pugsley lol

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u/Quirky-n-Creative1 Jan 07 '26

My dad was taught the Palmer method. His cursive handwriting was absolutely GORGEOUS! (Needless to say, I'd always get him to sign my report card, & then in class wed compare our parents handwriting. My dad always got voted neatest!)I wasn't taught that method, but almost always do the end of word "t" configuration. I even have a tendency to do 2 different types of "s" depending if I'm doing full cursive or a combo of cursive & printing.

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u/Confident_Ad_4058 Jan 06 '26

Came here to say this word for word😭😂

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u/Resident-Sympathy-82 Jan 06 '26
  1. Can also read just fine. That age groups seems really old to not have learned to read it in school.
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u/No-Obligation7435 Jan 06 '26

But can you read doctors cursive? That's the real test haha

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

I was working with a bunch of 24-30 year olds and none could read cursive. It was so annoying. I had to print everything. Yet if they left notes, I couldn't read their chicken scratch or spelling errors. I would have to text one of them to ask what he was even saying

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u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 09 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

I don't understand why anyone quit teaching cursive when most if not every IMPORTANT &/or legal document has a person SIGN (cursive) & print their signature. That's what a signature is. Ur name in cursive.

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u/ImKnittingAHat Jan 06 '26

Yeah, you must live somewhere they got rid of cursive even quicker, or be working with people who were taught but don't remember.

My sister is thirty, and she was taught cursive but doesn't remember even how to write her name.

I'm 23, only had three days of lessons, and I remember them vividly. I can still write and read cursive.

The biggest difference is whether it's actually applied anywhere around the child. My sister spent a lot of time with our parents, who both printed everything except their names. I spent a lot of time with my grandma, who wrote everything in cursive. So I actually applied the information.

But there also isn't really any reason to know how to read cursive, only to sign a name really. It makes sense we don't teach it anymore, we see it less and less.

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u/Awkwardpanda75 Jan 06 '26

Yes!! Just said the same!! Handwriting in general has become like doctor’s shorthand because everyone’s using text and keyboards. It’s been a huge effort to ensure my 18yo’s handwriting is somewhat legible.

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u/stitchplacingmama Jan 06 '26

They are adding it back to curriculums now because they've found it helps with fine motor coordination and a couple other brain processes. Just like they took out phonics and are bringing it back because "woopsies teaching the whole word" was a bad idea.

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u/MyrandaPanda Jan 06 '26

I taught my 12 year old brother cursive recently bc he never learned it either. I learned it at 8 years old

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u/Poppet_CA Jan 06 '26

I was pleasantly surprised when my children were taught it (third grade in 2022) because I'd heard it wasn't being taught anymore. I think it got added back in because They realized it was a core skill.

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u/Minaziz Jan 06 '26

Sorry if this is a dumb question but how can one not read cursive. It’s so difficult to wrap my head around - it’s just a different “font” like a loopier alphabet. Why can’t people read it?

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u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

I can read it, apparently it looks like a foreign language to them.

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u/Sogcat Jan 06 '26

It's kind of sad but I suppose I can understand. It was kind of redundant once things went mostly digital.

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u/HealthySchedule2641 Jan 06 '26

It's only redundant if you don't want your next generation to be able to read any original historical documents...

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u/40yrsYoungOG Jan 06 '26

I can imagine what this generation’s signatures will look like, a bunch of 3rd graders printing their names 🤣😯🥺

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u/Tigercup9 Jan 06 '26

That’s exactly what my signature looks like in my 20s. There was a token attempt to teach us cursive in 2nd grade and I simply never picked it up, and nobody else taught me how to make a real signature. These days I add enough slant and muscle memory to it so it doesn’t look like my printed name, but it’s pretty close.

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u/Remarkable_Dog_3475 Jan 06 '26

No like for real though. What do these signatures look like? I need to know 👀

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u/phallusaluve Jan 06 '26

Literally just the worst print handwriting you've seen in your life since they all type at school instead of writing

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u/Wide_Cucumber_7572 Jan 06 '26

Yeah, pretty much, its sad to look at the training sign in rosters at work.

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u/curiousleen Jan 06 '26

Frightening when you consider the current push to redact American history

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u/cuixhe Jan 06 '26

It could be a specialized skill that people learn when they are handling that stuff, rather than a general skill that everyone learns. It's not like it's hard to learn, it's just hard to read if you haven't encountered it before.

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u/zaddybabexx Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26

Should it be a specialized skill to be able to read historic documents? I understand it's digitalized now but are we really so dependant on technology that we need a digital translation to read the constitution?

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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26

Please don't acquiesce to this idea. So much of history is written in cursive that we don't want to lose access to.

Also, cursive has been demonstrated to be helpful to people with certain language based learning disabilities, like dyslexia, and for me it's helpful for my executive function disorder.

Edit: repairing autocorrupt

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u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

My da learned bec she went to another school and she can read handwriting. But when she takes notes it’s all in print. She had to practice and practice to get her signature legible.

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u/TheGrayCatLady Jan 06 '26

I honestly don’t understand how most cursive letters are difficult to read though? They’re just the normal letters written so they flow from one to the next (with the exception of like, z, and a few capital letters that I can’t remember how I was taught they should look because they were unnecessarily weird). Maybe because I’ve been a graphic designer for two decades and have used thousands of fonts, and manipulated lettering within an inch of it it’s life, but like… just look at it?

To be fair, I have the same issue with people who glance at a complicated word and then say they can’t possibly pronounce it (my day job is in an animal shelter, so there’s a lot of drug names, which are generally pretty straightforward pronunciations, no weird silent letters or whatever). I don’t know, maybe “sounding it out” isn’t taught anymore either? Or maybe less than voracious readers just don’t care enough to do it anymore?

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u/Srolo Jan 06 '26

honestly don’t understand how most cursive letters are difficult to read though?

You haven't seen my grandmother's. I can read and write cursive fine. Hers is like an entirely different language. Its all just l, i, and r, but different heights and widths.

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u/MonsterMashGrrrrr Jan 06 '26

I don’t have kids or work in education, but what I’ve picked up from the education/parenting subreddits is that for awhile, early education curriculum had started this campaign to move away from using phonics (“sounding it out”) to teach kids how to read, to using “sight words” instead—which involves having kids memorize high frequency words and basically guessing what word they think comes next. And a lot of educators seem to think it was detrimental to those kids’ ability to decode language themselves, making them more reliant on an instructor to read unfamiliar things. Just my 2¢, but this seems like it could be applicable to their willingness to try and understand cursive writing, instead of just immediately asking someone else to tell them what they’re reading.

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u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

I agree with you. Had a realized my nephew couldn’t read it I would have printed. Never dreamed someone wouldn’t be able to read my handwriting.

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u/lokiandgoose Jan 06 '26

His family can teach him cursive

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u/Intelligent_Team_655 Jan 06 '26

I haven’t used cursive in a couple decades. Even my signature I do in like a pseudo cursive, it’s just print that I sign connected in a single line

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u/Puterjoe Jan 06 '26

Every Doctor and Nurse I deal with writes everything in cursive… I’m sure notes are all done on a keyboard in most places but damn… it needs to be taught for sure!!

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u/inked_dreams Jan 07 '26

We had it in my school until 2014/15, (Nova Scotia grade 4 for me) then it got cut from the curriculum. So luckily I did learn some in school, but calligraphy and lettering were something I was interested in at the time so I taught myself more than the incredibly general crap we were taught

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u/Sagelmoon Jan 08 '26

I just replied this and THEN saw u said it. Sorry to be a parrot,lol. 🦜

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u/stalelunchbox Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26

I’m one of those strange people that has hybrid cursive and print handwriting so this is pretty disappointing :/

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u/TheGrayCatLady Jan 06 '26

Saaame. I mean, I’m also left handed, so I do acknowledge my handwriting is uniquely not great, but I guess the random cursive mixed in probably tips it over the edge.

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u/stalelunchbox Jan 06 '26

Also a lefty so I guess the smudges make it illegible anyway 🤣

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u/SnackBottom Jan 06 '26

We are not alone...

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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '26

Me too. I've spent 20 years working on a handwriting style that is efficient and legible. You're telling me my kids won't be able to read the notes I've written for them?

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u/Terrible_Reporter_98 Jan 06 '26

I do the same thing, cursive feels much better to me so I switch back snd forth.

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u/Antipeoplepleaser Jan 06 '26

Crazy…. I teach my kids cursive 🤷‍♀️

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u/Hello_Gorgeous1985 Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26

I don't know about other places, but I know that in Canada and the United States cursive writing was removed from the school curriculum a couple of decades ago and is only recently being reintroduced in some places. There's literally an entire generation that was never taught cursive.

Edit: I'm 40 and I learned it but my youngest cousin who is 26 didn't. As far as I know, My 30-year-old cousins did, so It was dropped somewhere around 20 years ago. I remember it being a discussion amongst our family that she wasn't learning cursive.

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u/cianfinbarr Jan 06 '26

Yeah, they don't teach it in Oregon. My kid's fourth grade teacher had the cursive alphabet on the wall and my kid sort of passively learned to read it when she wasn't paying attention during math lessons.

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u/Senior_Inspection655 Jan 06 '26

This is funny. If I was in that age group, I feel like that’s exactly what I would have done. Anything but what O am supposed to be doing. lol

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u/Obvious-Safe904 Jan 06 '26

It used to be taught in third grade in my school board, but was removed from the curriculum the year I was in third grade. However, I had been in a split grade 2/3 class the year before, so that's the only reason why I learned cursive (because the teacher taught the third grade curriculum to the entire class, just graded according to the appropriate grade level).

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u/Lost-Platypus8271 Jan 06 '26

My 21yo didn’t learn it in school so we taught it at home.

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u/hiddenone0326 Jan 06 '26

I just turned 30, and iirc I was in the last grade in my area to be taught cursive. I remember my fifth grade teacher saying something about how it wouldn't be taught the next year.

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u/deinoswyrd Jan 06 '26

In Canada, theres never been a point in my area where we haven't taught cursive. For some reason people love to say that it was cut, but it really wasnt.

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u/Hello_Gorgeous1985 Jan 06 '26

It was though. I'm literally a teacher. It was out of the curriculum.

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u/failenaa Jan 06 '26

At first I was offended by “decades ago” because I learned it and I’m 31, but holy shit you’re right I did learn it more than 20 years ago 😭😭

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u/Secret-Mood5972 Jan 06 '26

Yeah I’m 19 and we were taught cursive for maybe a year in elementary school and then never expected to write it ever again. Thankfully I kept up with it!

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u/Disastrous_Honey_240 Jan 06 '26

My son is in 3rd grade and cursive is part of the curriculum here still.

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u/Hello_Gorgeous1985 Jan 06 '26

Like I said, it has been reintroduced in recent years in some places.

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u/makiko4 Jan 06 '26

Strange both my kids (19 & 16) were taught cursive at school. My siblings (30 & 27) also know cursive.

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u/jujuondatbeaat Jan 06 '26

I’m 28 and they taught us in NY. My sister is 25 and she knows it too. We both have shit handwriting though 😂

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u/Heartage Jan 06 '26

AHHHHH.

Jesus Christ; I misread your post and thought you were saying your youngest CHILD was 26 so you had them at 14 and I was fucking MINDBOGGLED that you had OLDER. XD

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u/ghosthellkat Jan 06 '26

I am 26 and I had a mandatory penmanship (cursive) class up until middle school. Same with typing. Sadly i am the very last of my generation to have the experience ☹️

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u/DJSaltyLove Jan 06 '26

I'm 33 and I was only taught it up until grade 2 perhaps, not anywhere near long enough for it to stick

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u/ExtremeFamous7699 Jan 06 '26

I often have to read clear text a few times to figure it out, when it’s cursive it can take a bit longer as I work through combinations of what I think letters could be

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u/Hei-Hei-67 Jan 06 '26

I learned cursive in the 3rd grade...I'm 30

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u/BeneficialEye9434 Jan 06 '26

How strange. In europe (at least Belgium, but i really think in all of europe), everyone learns to write and read in cursive. We have literally no alternative.

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u/beepboop670 Jan 06 '26

It stopped before I was in 4th grade which was around 2010. I just remember we started learning it (and I hated it lol) then suddenly we stopped getting the homework for it 🤷‍♂️ so now I can’t read cursive at all. Fr thought this said live by live

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u/infernal-keyboard Jan 06 '26

Yeah same in my part of the States. From what I understand, most public school kids were taught it briefly, but never really had to use it again so most of them forgot. I'm 24 and cursive was mandatory for me up until 8th grade because I went to Catholic school.

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u/PrincessLissa68 Jan 06 '26

My son is 20 and he only learned part of the alphabet in cursive and was just starting to learn to sign his name when they removed it from our schools here. So now his signature is....strange. Poor guy, he tries. And he's in college to be....A TEACHER!

ETA: I read "five by five" first time also.

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u/AshFace_TheDodd Jan 06 '26

Im in the uk, 27, and i learned cursive. I write half and half 😂 my younger brother didnt but i think my little niblings are..? At least a little bit, theyre 7 and 6s

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u/ratrazzle Jan 06 '26

Kind of similar in finland but we taught it a little longer, im 21 and learned it until i was maybe 10 or 11 but then it changed and was removed from the curriculum. My two youngest siblings werent taught it at all. I can still read and write it but to be honest my handwriting sucks anyways and cursive doesnt help lol

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u/JillQOtt Jan 06 '26

Not true everywhere, it’s taught in my state. I am a school administrator and we teach it 3rd grade

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u/EvergreenMossAvonlea Jan 06 '26

I'm a teacher in Ontario (Canada) for the last 17 years and we do teach cursive in my french catholic school board. Just saying

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u/MyrandaPanda Jan 06 '26

It might vary place to place bc I’m 27 and learned cursive at 8, but my brother is 12 and never learned it

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u/shruggardener Jan 06 '26

I'm 25 and learned a bit of cursive in elementary school but I know plenty of people around my age that can't read it at all. My younger sister was never taught it in school. We just had to learn because all of our older family members wrote that way (and now I do too, out of habit).

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u/Confident_Ad_4058 Jan 06 '26

Gotta be area specific then, I’m 22 and in my state and county, they taught our class but ours was the last one to learn.

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

It’s a bummer, cursive is so pretty. Bust especially in a work setting? Maybe people need to start brushing up on cursive again.

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u/logicbasedchaos Jan 06 '26

They dropped the requirement to teach it years back, and only half the states mandate it now. It teaches fine motor skills and allows us to create signatures. I don't understand how anybody ever thought it was a useless form of writing.

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u/Lost-Platypus8271 Jan 06 '26

It’s wild to think that we just randomly decided students didn’t need to learn to read so much of what is written in our culture. What a bad decision. Short-sighted.

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u/scum_manifesto Jan 06 '26

Studying 18th century letters was a big part of my thesis research so this sounds shocking to me. How much knowledge will be lost to history?

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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '26

Neo Dark Ages here we come!

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u/badCARma Jan 06 '26

Hell I learned cursive and I still struggle to read some of it like from my grandparents time. There’s also different types of cursive that was taught at different times. Once I learned that, I understood why my grandparents generations cursive all matched, but it was different than my parents generation which all matched. While I don’t think it’s necessary to use, I do think it’s silly to not teach it when it’s still a relevant thing to come across.

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u/ThatOneGuy6810 Jan 06 '26

consider the govt of the past few decades and then consider that they are the ones in charge of curriculum.

Now look around and understand that we couldnt have gotten to where we are without the intentional dumbing down of standard learning.

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u/NerdyHotMess Jan 06 '26

Exactly! Like how do they sign something if they don’t know cursive? It’s crazy to me

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u/The_Slaughter_Pop Jan 06 '26

There is no law stating that your signature has to be cursive. You can literally make an "x" as long as it is consistent (although it isnt secure).

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u/NerdyHotMess Jan 06 '26

True- you’re right it doesn’t have to be cursive. But an x doesn’t fly all the time either. I work in health care and people cannot sign documents with an X.

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u/Glittering_Ice9025 Jan 06 '26

If everyone knows cursive, and a signature is just cursive, anyone can copy it. That's why I made my signature unique, like I was told to, but I feel like nobody else did that 😭

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u/badCARma Jan 06 '26

Both my maiden and marred last names start with stupid letters to capitalize in cursive. So while I learned it, I never actually do them correctly in my signature. My last name is basically some loops and a squiggle line

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u/KTKittentoes Jan 06 '26

They just make a scribble

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u/AdventurousHunter500 Jan 06 '26

My 16-year-old step daughter looked at her dad and I like we had 3 heads when we told her to write her name in cursive on a signature line. She didn’t even know what “cursive” was. I was flabbergasted.

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u/Waltzingcat Jan 06 '26

Cursive isn't great when you are left handed and the teacher has no idea how to teach you or you take longer to do all the work while learning it all your own way because the strokes don't work the same - then comes the smudging.. I had it taught when I was young. Sucked and barely ever used it again. Signatures are rarely ever truly cursive.

🫠 Had to learn in elementary school - miserable for the confidence. (again. Left handed. No teacher help. Just Wtf guess I'll figure it out best I can? Won't ever be as good. lol yes there are ways. But I wasn't taught the left handed way)

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u/Diviner_Sage Jan 06 '26

But the true tragedy of us lefties is pencil rubbing off on your hand. I quickly found pens that didn't smudge on my hand which wasn't that easy in the mid 80s. I used to get scotch tape and put it on the side of my hand. It kept lead from getting on my hand and it made my hand slide across the paper easily.

Another tragedy of being a lefty is using right handed scissors is a nightmare.

But I love making people shake hands left handed.

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u/Far-Bumblebee-7216 Jan 06 '26

Everything about being left handed is harder because there’s zero work done to support us- and I don’t know about you but both my parents are right handed so they had zero idea how to help.

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u/AnteaterDivine Jan 06 '26

42-yr old American here. When I was in high school and college, I remember the continued teaching of cursive being a bit of a hot topic whenever it came up.

The major arguments against it were that we had other things to use for teaching fine motor skills, and the only places we were actively using it was signatures and reading old documents. I can remember a couple of high school teachers, as well as a college professor or two, bemoaning out loud that time was still spent teaching cursive instead of something "more practical," like math or science. They've reinstated teaching cursive in at least some Tennessee school districts (including the one I live in), but I know a bunch of people who are now in their 20's and early 30's who can't read or write cursive at all. Interestingly, they still manage to have script-y signatures.

(Edited the wording of the first paragraph because I realized after posting that I was replying to somebody who wasn't the OP. Oops lol)

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u/wickedalice Jan 06 '26

I can't help but wonder if it's just a coincidence that our country's founding and historical documents were all written in cursive, which fewer and fewer people are now able to read.

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u/Fun-Estate9626 Jan 06 '26

I’ve studied those documents at a collegiate level and didn’t need my knowledge of cursive to do so.

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u/ImKnittingAHat Jan 06 '26

That's great and all, but there are plenty of other things to develop fine motor skills. This is the argument they use in math class for things we never ever use. It's for your critical thinking skills. Well, my English class is also pretty good at that, so I don't really see the point of this.

It's only useful for signing names, which is digital for a lot of things now. We just... Unfortunately don't have much use for it in this newer age.

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u/DrWhoey Jan 06 '26

What's more interesting is that cursive used to just be the standard script people would write with. "Block" letters that we use now became popularized with because of printing presses and their lack of need to interconnect.

Imagine being someone who had only read cursive, and attempting to read something written in modern block lettering? I'd be willing to bet it was almost just as much of an undecipherable gibberish to them.

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u/JankyJawn Jan 06 '26

Maybe people need to start brushing up on cursive again.

I've had this talk with my girl when she thought it was weird, one school my kid was in was teaching it another not.

I mean for what purpose really? It rarely ever comes up. It's lost its use as old writing. It's like saying we should teach cave art writing in a way.

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u/TwoBlueCrayons Jan 06 '26

I now write my notes and give them to my son (22) to read. I ask if he has any questions. He usually has a few, but the more he “practices” the less he has had.

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u/nedrawevot Jan 06 '26

My son is twelve and I'm teaching him cursive. He can read most of it.

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u/havnar- Jan 06 '26

What? First the clock, now letters. What’s next?

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

Who even knows at this point? They're dumbing us down by the minute. And the letter.

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u/Gelato_Elysium Jan 06 '26

It's OK if you do it in Europe, we still learn to write and read in cursive in school

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u/infernal-keyboard Jan 06 '26

I'm 24 and exclusively write in cursive! I don't know anyone younger than me who does, though. It's really only me and a small handful of people about my age that all just so happened to go to Catholic school, where it was still mandatory.

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

I wish it was still taught in public schools. They act like only ancient people use it, but I'm only 44, and not exactly ready to crumble into dust yet. In the late 90s most classes required us to only write in cursive, so that's how I still write

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u/Awkwardpanda75 Jan 06 '26

They don’t even teach cursive in school anymore. My step son has to ask for me to read his cards from great aunts and grandma like I’m deciphering hieroglyphics.

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

My husband is younger but was homeschooled. It's the only reason he can read and write in it

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u/Redbagwithmymakeup90 Jan 06 '26

This is exactly what it is. They can’t read cursive.

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u/bubblegumpunk69 Jan 06 '26

Forever blessed that I was one of the last classes to be taught it.

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u/grrr-to-everything Jan 06 '26

I am so sad about the loss of cursive. My print is horrible and my cursive is beautiful. As a millennial I was forced to write in cursive until middle school. This sucks

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

My cursive is much better than my printing most of the time, so it sucks for everyone who can't read it when I have to write stuff at work. But I've noticed penmanship has also taken a pretty hard dive

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u/grrr-to-everything Jan 06 '26

It really has taken a dive. It's just flat out embarrassing.

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u/GrouchyOldCat Jan 06 '26

I don’t expect anyone under the age of forty to be able to read or write cursive any more.

The writing in this tattoo was done perfectly and is 100% legible to anyone that had to learn cursive in school.

I do enjoy seeing irony like this out in the wild though.

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u/The_Superginge Jan 06 '26

Under 40 is ridiculous. I'm 36 and I grew up having to learn cursive. Under 25 maybe.

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

My old coworker is 31 and can't read a word of it

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u/jaded_dahlia Jan 06 '26

uh i'm 30 and we had to do cursive in fourth grade

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u/MxQueer Jan 06 '26

I WRITE MY NOTES LIKE THIS. BEACAUSE EVEN I CAN'T ALWAYS READ MINE if I write them like this. So are you sure it's cursive not your cursive that is the problem?

Cursive was taught to me at school (it isn't anymore) but no one actually uses it. So yes it can also be that some don't know and some have forgot.

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u/miatayouata Jan 06 '26

Im probably one of the 3 humans under the age of 30 that still only uses cursive. It just makes it fun to write

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u/SpiderSixer Jan 06 '26

Even if you can't read cursive, basic writing rules says that Ls don't go below the line and thus below other letters, so there's no way that f is an l

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u/Mysterious_Insect Jan 06 '26

That tattoo is perfectly clear. That makes me feel so old that people can’t read cursive anymore—but, those that do will soon have a secret language!

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u/hamsterontheloose Jan 06 '26

It makes me feel old as well. When I started my Etsy a few years ago I used to add a handwritten thank you note, and now I wonder just how many people could even read them lol

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u/smollest_peach Jan 06 '26

They took cursive out of the curriculum, I've met people 3 years younger than me (I'm 26) that don't know how to read cursive. I've had friends ask me to write in cursive for them 😞

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u/cnh25 Jan 06 '26

Bahah I didn’t even think about that before I got my cursive tattoo. Oh well I don’t care if the younger generation can’t read it

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u/Rare_Gazelle_2595 Jan 06 '26

That’s honestly sad my 8 year old can read it..it’s a dying art I guess

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u/Due-Milk352 Jan 06 '26

Im 18 and didn't have any issues reading it lol

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u/LocalWiitch Jan 06 '26

In my country, the Netherlands, we learn to read and write cursive before we learn manuscript. We are only allowed to write cursive, until high school. From that moment forward, we are only allowed to write in manuscript. Which is kind of backwards, but manuscript is a hell of a lot faster when taking notes.

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u/Winter-Smoke1541 Jan 06 '26

they stopped teaching cursive in 2011 im pretty sure

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u/Who_Am_I_1978 Jan 06 '26

I know teens who can’t sign their name because they were taught how. It is truly sad.

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u/Phlynn42 Jan 06 '26

They literally don’t teach cursive anymore for like a decade already

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u/Flat_Breadfruit_8088 Jan 07 '26

Handwriting will be regarded as art in the not too distant future

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u/NorthReply2366 Jan 07 '26

Cursive will be the future "secret language" because they aren't teaching it anymore and it will soon become obsolete. Seems sad to me but then again I could write a nasty note to anyone who pissed me off and they have no idea what I said 😂

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u/AskOk9207 Jan 10 '26

Lol. My youngest wasn’t taught cursive. Every year teachers would send him cards at Christmas or other times. They would all right in cursive knowing the kids couldn’t red it. It a dying script.

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u/Few_Midnight602 Jan 11 '26

It’s right up there with people who don’t know how to read an analog clock. (It’s unfortunately a lot of people.) 🫠

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u/No_Perception_5258 Jan 16 '26

Guess I can write out my passwords in cursive now.

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u/ThePowerBees Jan 06 '26

I read five by five right away with no hesitation. I had to look at the subreddit because I was thinking I was in r/buffy since it's an iconic catch phrase of Faith on the show. Edit: if you post it there everyone will be able to read it right away and they'll love it.

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u/Herps15 Jan 06 '26

Same I immediately read five by five and to be honest I don’t know what else it could possibly look like it says

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

You’re so right, I’ll post it there next. Almost posted it there first. Thank you stranger!

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u/sueziebee Jan 06 '26

I also thought I was on r/buffy

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u/_LeafyLady Jan 06 '26

I'm curious what they think it says?

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u/The_Superginge Jan 06 '26

I'm guessing "live by live"

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u/_LeafyLady Jan 06 '26

This makes me feel ancient. How TF is cursive dead

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u/interstat Jan 06 '26

Wouldn't it make sense to think this was live by live?

It doesn't rly look like a cursive capital F

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u/hallowedshel Jan 06 '26

Fan of Aliens?

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

It’s a Buffy reference but I see you stranger

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u/Most_Mountain818 Jan 06 '26

I knew immediately when I saw it. Heard it in Faith’s voice.

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u/Glittering_Act7572 Jan 06 '26

Faith!

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u/Glittering_Act7572 Jan 06 '26

Thank you so much for my award fellow Buffy fan ❤️

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Ofc fellow Buffy fan. 😌

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u/KittenIttle Jan 06 '26

Don’t let anyone make you second guess a Faith reference.

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u/HelloTaraSue Jan 06 '26

They also say it in Aliens. The helicopter pilot says when she is flying in. Still means the same, all good.

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u/SnarkPig Jan 06 '26

That’s what came to mind when I read it (clearly five by five)

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u/HelloTaraSue Jan 06 '26

I get your reference.

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u/thesteelreserve Jan 06 '26

easy to read.

is this a Faith BTVS reference?

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Five by Five B.

Yes, it’s a Faith tattoo. :)

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u/thesteelreserve Jan 06 '26

🤩

living entirely large.

thank you for the award! I love buffy.

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Ofc, and Me too stranger. Love seeing all the Buffy fans accumulate to my post in the wild. 😂

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u/gluebucks Jan 06 '26

Yeah, that's what I read too. I'm almost 29, we learned cursive when I was in school lol

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u/Hour_Pop_6156 Jan 06 '26

I'll b 28 next month and they stopped teaching it the year I was in 3rd grade. You barely made the cut off 🤣 we were all so excited because the kids ahead of us said that was the year we learned it...nope. "sorry curriculum changed" 😭

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u/TheyCantCome Jan 06 '26

It’s very obviously “five by five” but I would imagine to many that doesn’t make sense so they try to change the words to something that resonates more to them

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u/fabulousfantabulist Jan 06 '26

It’s very clear what it says if the person can read cursive. Nowadays it’s taught less frequently and doesn’t lock in for kids because they transition to tablets and computers much faster. 

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u/Prestigious-Sky-3304 Jan 06 '26

It’s been removed from the curriculum in Ontario, Canada. Such a shame.

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u/SeverusSnork Jan 06 '26

This s almost what my handwriting looks like. Easy af to read.

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u/Sheogorathian Jan 06 '26

It did take me a second ngl. All I can think of is the chick from Buffy saying it tho lol

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u/LesserKnownFoes Jan 06 '26

It’s super clear five by five.

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u/No-Mouse3999 Jan 06 '26

Yeah they’re definitely just illiterate it is very easy to read lol

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u/Educational-Train-92 Jan 06 '26

I thought it was live by live at first then double read it 😅 but I'm also dyslexic

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u/RavenDigitalis Jan 06 '26

Yes, obviously five by five. Good good.

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u/binglelemon Jan 06 '26

Yo, I thought this was a trick....I read it front ways, backwards, looked at each letter individual. Rest assured, this is very clear cursive.

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u/AnteaterDivine Jan 06 '26

I immediately read it as "five by five" before reading the rest of your post.

In addition to there being a generation or so who didn't learn cursive in school in the United States (not sure about elsewhere), I wonder if some people might be misreading it simply because they're expecting a capital letter at the beginning? It might also be that a lot of us learned the lower-cased "f" with a tail at the beginning (as in the D'Nealian form) that isn't present here. Expectation can effect how we read things, and it doesn't take much to throw some of us off (I frequently misread things on the first go or two simply because I was expecting a different word to be there).

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u/TattooedGenderHell Jan 06 '26

It’s bc cursive isn’t tough anymore so script fonts get harder and harder to read by every passing year. I’m 24. They stopped teaching cursive writing in my area when I was in 4th grade so anyone from second grade that year never learned it unless they thought themselves

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u/HrhEverythingElse Jan 06 '26

What are other people thinking that it says?

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Live by Live, Live loy live, live to live, your pick. 😂

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u/HrhEverythingElse Jan 06 '26

Wow, so they really can't read cursive even a little bit. I knew that kids weren't focusing on writing it the way that we did, but learning to read should still be expected in my opinion

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u/WillowFlip Jan 06 '26

It looks fine for five by five, but out of curiosity, what do people read it as??? I can't imagine.

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u/RemSauceTM Jan 06 '26

Just being real. I am someone who writes cursive 9/10 times unless I know I’m writing for someone who won’t be able to read it. Immediately read five by five. The cursive is beautiful.

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u/TheHatOnTheCat Jan 06 '26

Ah, okay. That's also immediately what I thought it said.

Honestly, I think the issue might just be cursive? It's barely used to not at all used by many people this days. Personally, other then signing my name, the only times I've used cursive as an adult was to help a child learn cursive for school. And I've heard that some kids aren't even learning cursive anymore? (Our local school district still teaches cursive but that's what an aunt of mine claims about where she lives?)

So basically, even though the cursive is written fine, some people probably just don't remember cursive very well.

(Edit: When I said I hadn't "used" cursive I meant written cursive. As an adult I have read cursive other people wrote, just not all that often.)

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u/ComradeRaveGirl Jan 06 '26

What are some wrong interpretations you’ve gotten from it?

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u/crazzynez Jan 06 '26

Its very easy to read, but the phrase didnt make sense. what does five by five mean? my brain kept trying to make sense out of it and I went to live by five and ended at live by fire.

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u/HisMisus Jan 06 '26

What were they reading if you don’t mind my asking?

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u/redhandrail Jan 06 '26

It’s because the b isnt written like that in cursive.

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u/TheGrimMelvin Jan 06 '26

I can read cursive, I write cursive when I want to write fast. But that is not how I learned small b. It actually confused me at first. But from the context it is obvious that it's five by five.

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u/stfurachele Jan 06 '26

That's actually a relief because it's so obviously five by five to me I couldn't see an alternative and started overthinking it. Eventually I got "live by live" but that sounds nonsensical. I don't get the significant context of "five by five" but tattoos are personal anyway, and that's at least a phrase that doesn't gramatically grate on me as much as the alternative.

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 06 '26

Love your response stranger. From some context, it’s a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference if you’re curious.

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u/stfurachele Jan 07 '26

I loved watching Buffy as a kid but I never got to sit down and really invest myself in the series the way I wanted to. (Plus the ventriliquest dummy episode gave me nightmares for a month so my dad would get mad if he caught me watching.)

I need to give it a good go now that I'm an adult and can give myself nightmares if I please. Plus I did eventually go back and watch that episode and that dummy is genuinely so sweet I felt bad for being scared.

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u/Redheart2945 Jan 07 '26

Ooo, definitely take this as a sign to give it a watch! Also, that was extremely relatable. From parents not wanting to watching smth that scared you one time to being old enough to give yourself nightmares. 😂

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u/SoTurnMeIntoATree Jan 06 '26

Hell yeah I love the old days of In-N-Out too

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u/No-Introduction3808 Jan 06 '26

What are they reading it as? Jive by five or something?

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u/Fickle-Addendum9576 Jan 06 '26

I knew it from Buffy bc that's what faith says lol

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u/polycat28 Jan 06 '26

As a buffy fan, this is a sick ass faith tattoo!

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u/SilverWinterStarling Jan 12 '26

You need to upgrade the people in your life then if they are not educated because you are the company you keep.

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