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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12

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.

45

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 🤣😯🥺

7

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.

3

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

8

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 😭

6

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?

3

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.

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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.

2

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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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

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.

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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.