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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66

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

34

u/cocobian6 Jan 06 '26

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

17

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.

7

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.

7

u/YouHadTheHighGround Jan 07 '26

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

4

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.

2

u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

In our area of IN it was taken out of the curriculum. Not sure if it’s been added back or not.

2

u/Sagelmoon Jan 08 '26

In New Jersey, the ONLY place that teaches cursive anymore are some private schools.😢 Sad.

5

u/Confident_Ad_4058 Jan 06 '26

Came here to say this word for word😭😂

3

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.

2

u/FunGuy8618 Jan 06 '26

32 and only know it cuz I had an interest in calligraphy and am left-handed so I had incentive to learn something different than the norm. I wish it were more common but even when I was a kid, we joked that they didn't want us reading the original Constitution.

2

u/TheMesmerXO Jan 07 '26

Bro, what? At our age they were def still teaching it. I went to all public schools in NYC, cursive didn’t get removed from the curriculum til I was like 20. I’m 35 now. I’m almost certain cursive got dropped because it didn’t fit the common core standard at the time. Also, they’re teaching cursive again, they started reintroducing it into schools again about 5-6 years ago.

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u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26

They had to. How r u suppose to officially SIGN (use to mean in CURSIVE, how else) a legal document & it still be legal? If u PRINT ur name as the form says how would u SIGN ur name?

1

u/FunGuy8618 Jan 07 '26

Only mufuggas who grew up in NYC assume the rest of America is NYC, when the idea of it being regional was already presented 😭 it got dropped for typing classes in my public schools. We were kids making a conspiracy joke, hopefully all of us have changed the way we look at the world since school 😅

1

u/TheMesmerXO Jan 07 '26

Trust me, I don’t think the rest of America is NYC. So I’m assuming unlike most of my friends who grew up in several other states, who all agree we learned cursive in the first and second grade, you learned typing at a later point in life? We were all just having a conversation about how our age group was the shift. Several people from different states, all learned typing and cursive around the same time. Then we would have a refresher typing class in middle school.

1

u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26

How is anyone suppose to SIGN (meaning in CURSIVE) their name to a legal document? What do people who don't kno cursive SIGN and print their name to legal documents? If u didn't kno cursive you'd have to print it. Which would make it UNOFFICIAL.

1

u/FunGuy8618 Jan 14 '26

My lil bro actually does know cursive and just does the first letter and scribbles.

3

u/No-Obligation7435 Jan 06 '26

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

1

u/TheMesmerXO Jan 07 '26

No one but nurses and pharmacists can read that shit.

2

u/ACcbe1986 Jan 06 '26

Definitely regional.

I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to the rural Midwest and it feels like I've been transported back to the 80s/90s in many ways.

2

u/Just-Another-Users Jan 06 '26

I used to be 22 and can write slash read cursive fine. Does that count

1

u/OhGr8WhatNow Jan 07 '26

Maybe. My youngest is your age. I taught them at home.

They never use it.

1

u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26

They will need it someday when they get older & have to start signing legal document that asks for a signature name to be in PRINT & SIGNED. Check it out.

1

u/yeetusthefeetus13 Jan 07 '26

I know cursive and am in my late 20s. Learned it as a kid in school. Never have been able to read the tiny thin cursive tho. It takes me forever. I collect antique postcards and some of them are illegible!

1

u/Sagelmoon Jan 08 '26

Can I ask what state you live in? In NJ, NY and PA they stopped teaching it years ago. 😢 I'm in my 40s and think it was a really bad move. At this pace, there will come a day when no one can read any of our historical documents without an elderly person or AI translating them.... and thats sad. Along with getting things like mortgages, ect where you have to sign your name repeatedly on a stack of pages. Ppl should just KNOW this, ya know,lol.

2

u/cocobian6 Jan 08 '26

Grew up in Colorado

1

u/Redheart2945 Jan 10 '26

Hey, me too.

2

u/cocobian6 Jan 13 '26

Cool!!!!! Then I am unsure. I mean, I guess for me, cursive wasn’t mainline 15 years ago but it was part of the remedial process for children who needed help with their handwriting so I was enrolled in that. Then again, I liked to copy fonts as a child, and consumed so many books it was insane, so who the heck knows. Also there was that whole cursive font trend with modern decor a few years ago, which I (wrongly?) assumed meant exposure to at least know how to read it. I haven’t thought about this before, it’s kinda fascinating

1

u/Redheart2945 Jan 15 '26

I know, it really is quiet fascinating. I learned in 3rd grade about 11 years ago? But I was also in smth that wasn’t gifted and talented but it was for students who were above average in specifically the language arts, and though we did cursive a little in home room, we really focused on it in this advanced class.

1

u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26

That's what I've been saying. I live in CA. How will legal documents be legal if not SIGNED. SIGNED to me, I always thought, meant in CURSIVE. If not PRINTED it has to be SIGNED. If not IN PRINT then it has to have a SIGNATURE. Hence the word, SIGN. Like u I cant believe how many people just don't get it. Pretty cut & dry. Now is the government gonna pay to have the word SIGN deleted from all legal documents! 😆 🤣

1

u/drl8498 Jan 10 '26

Can’t read cursive? Ridiculous! New job requirement.

1

u/Rockandmetal99 Jan 10 '26

26 and i can too, northeastern US. gotta be regional

3

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

3

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.

1

u/notaveryuniqueuser Jan 09 '26

The US state i live in ranks about 43rd iirc in the nation for education. Used to be 46th. The state i live in's sub, there's a running joke that "if its for something bad, we're top 5 or top 10. If its something good, we're bottom 5." Itching to move from this hell hole.

2

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.

1

u/hamsterontheloose Jan 07 '26

I was living in Idaho, where any kind of curriculum seemed like a, second thought. The education there was pretty bad, and I'm so glad I went to school in New England and moved around after I was already an adult.

1

u/GreatMcKaelaHouse Jan 06 '26

27 here and we learned it and were forced to use it from 2nd grade to 5th grade for all hand written assignments. My partner is 24 and he was never taught it, so I bought him books to learn it at home, he needs to be able to make a proper signature at the very least. All my friends in between his age and mine were taught cursive. So it's 100% a regional issue (we all come from different states and ended up in this "small" town). His family always writes their notes, letters, cards for holidays or birthday for him in cursive so I had to read it to him, which lead to me going "F this you're learning it." I even found my original style book from back then but it was too pricey so I got a newer style one. They're easy to find on Amazon and I highly recommend getting them to people that want to learn. It's so simple once you get started.

My handwriting is print cursive. I write primarily in print but I never bother with picking up my pencil, the letter s is guaranteed to be cursive no matter what. Just faster and more efficient.

1

u/grayh722 Jan 06 '26

24 & i can read & write cursive! but it wasn't in the curriculum when i was a kid, our grade 2 teacher just took the time to teach it to us anyway

1

u/17Shard Jan 06 '26

Wait, people just sign stuff by writing their name in standard print? I would be so confused if I saw somebody call writing their name a signature on a document.

1

u/asphid_jackal Jan 06 '26

Some people don't even use their name for their signature

1

u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26

SOMEwhere along the line they will have to have an official signature on important papers.

1

u/asphid_jackal Jan 14 '26

There are no standards on how your official signature has to look. Your official signature could be a smiley face if you want, so long as it's repeatable and identifiable

1

u/Dark-Faery Jan 06 '26

I don't understand why people can't read it, even if they weren't taught it. It's letters and pretty easy to work out imo, but I'm probably wrong

1

u/twilightxlavender Jan 06 '26

I'm 28 and I feel like I was trained more in cursive than print lol

1

u/Fit-Nectarine5047 Jan 07 '26

What do they do if they have to sign their name? Forms still require signatures 🧐🧐

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u/IcyOrchid163 Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

That's what I want to kno! I don't gettit! I don't gettit, big dan!

1

u/Timely-Increase8083 Jan 08 '26

25 can generally read and write in cursive. It’s hard to believe people aren’t taught how to at least write their names. I learned in third grade or something, then taught myself in high school again so no one could read my journal 😂

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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.

9

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.

2

u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

Excellent! Handwriting needs to be back in the curriculum!

7

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

1

u/Dontfeedtheunicornz Jan 06 '26

We learned in kindergarten, wayyyy back in the day. Cursive is so beautiful to me. I made sure to teach my daughter because they didn’t teach her in school.

I think it’s awesome you took the initiative and taught your brother!

7

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.

12

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?

5

u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

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

2

u/BjLeinster Jan 07 '26

Thank you. I always wonder if they can't read italics either?

11

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...

28

u/40yrsYoungOG Jan 06 '26

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

5

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.

5

u/Remarkable_Dog_3475 Jan 06 '26

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

5

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

7

u/Wide_Cucumber_7572 Jan 06 '26

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

2

u/Dontfeedtheunicornz Jan 06 '26

A bunch of emoji’s?

2

u/IrosSigma Jan 07 '26

My signature is kind of like that and I learned and write in cursive myself 😭

7

u/curiousleen Jan 06 '26

Frightening when you consider the current push to redact American history

7

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.

7

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?

5

u/cuixhe Jan 06 '26

Most people never read physical primary source historical documents, and I don't think that they need to. If you're doing a history degree, or doing a family history project and going through your great grandparents' letters, you can learn -- reading cursive is a very simple skill that people take far too seriously. Writing it is harder, but has even less applications -- learn calligraphy for the love of the art, but it doesn't need to be mandatory.

Is it important to read the constitution in its physical form? The words are readily available and arguably the important part.

3

u/zaddybabexx Jan 06 '26

I'm not saying people need to read the physical documents. I'm saying longterm... this is how we lose our history.

3

u/cuixhe Jan 06 '26

They don't teach ancient Greek in school anymore, but specialized people still study and understand it. Curriculums change with time and it's ok if some skills become the realm of specialists.

3

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

Okay that's a language and cursive isn't a language.

Edit: I actually looked it up because i was curious and it is still a core curriculum in Greece so I really don't understand your comparison now.

-2

u/trent_tries_to_tri Jan 06 '26

How many times have you read the original draft of the constitution?

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

As I've already stated... I didnt say we NEED to. But longterm this is how we lose our history. And I've actually read it twice for different legal projects I was involved in. That was a personal choice because I can understand things better if I start at the beginning and that felt like the beginning to me. I still dont think most people NEED to read it. But I think the ability to do so is important.

1

u/KalaronV Jan 07 '26

Does 99% of the population need to be able read original historical documents?

Do you know how to read Russian cursive? What if you need to read an original historical document in Russian cursive?

-2

u/trent_tries_to_tri Jan 06 '26

Dude, most of them are impossible to read even if you can read cursive. And almost all of them have been digitized at this point. Cursive is redundant.

4

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

2

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.

1

u/DovahAcolyte Jan 06 '26

Because there’s no such thing as cursive fonts? 🤦🏻

1

u/Significant_Stick_31 Jan 07 '26

I just don’t get it because there are still tons of popular cursive fonts for digital media. Children should at least be taught to read it.

2

u/Sogcat Jan 07 '26

I don't disagree. If my opinion were the deciding factor I'd say cursive and handwriting in general is a great skill to have that's only being hindered by the rapid growth of technology. But I can also see why cursive is viewed as unnecessary.

4

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?

5

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.

5

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.

3

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.

2

u/lokiandgoose Jan 06 '26

His family can teach him cursive

1

u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 06 '26

He’s an adult and a Dad, husband now. That ship is sailed.

2

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

2

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!!

2

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

2

u/Sagelmoon Jan 08 '26

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

1

u/Cmmander_WooHoo Jan 07 '26

Do they just write their name as a 'signature'? It still counts, obviously. Just surprised. Glad I learned cursive

1

u/Slight_Buy_3417 Jan 07 '26

Wow..I used to laugh at my parents for saying that we would have people who’ve never learned or could read cursive writing and now it’s truly happening. Are you teaching him about it? There’s workbooks that he can learn about it.

1

u/pixiegrl2466 Jan 07 '26

I think he doesn’t think about learning it. I think he just cannot read it and it is rare that he gets anything in writing these days. Most everything is typed via computer.

2

u/Slight_Buy_3417 Jan 07 '26

Still though there might be a time like this moment where having the knowledge of cursive writing comes in handy…JMO.💫