"He asked for a 13 but they drew a 31" -- what does that mean?

[Ron Inbar]

Thanks in advance,

Ron

[Erin]

This is from Pretty Fly for a White Guy. He wanted a 13 (a symbolic
number), but the tattoo artist made a mistake and gave him a 31 -- much less
meaningful.

Ron Inbar wrote in message <7fprlb$ejo$1...@news.netvision.net.il>...
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Ron
>
>
>

[Dawn Clutter]

In tattoo lingo, it's the size of the needle, well, the number of needles. A
tattoo artist could explain it better, but I figured I'd at least give you
an idea of what it was. A 13 is a "needle" that has 13 small points, used to
do fill in work (I THINK) And I'm probably wrong, but a single or double
needle is used to do outline work. Anyway, the more needles, the more it
hurts, but the less time it takes..... this coming from a girl with 10
tats..... If I'm wrong, will someone correct me?

[Mark Rae]

Erin,

Thanks for clearing that one up - a brilliant explanation!

--
Mark Rae
http://OurWorld.CompuServe.com/HomePages/MarkRae

G99 Genesis Fan Convention
http://ds.dial.pipex.com/mdean/g99.htm

Erin <uniqu...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:7fq4n7$k3c$1...@east44.supernews.com...

> This is from Pretty Fly for a White Guy. He wanted a 13 (a symbolic
> number), but the tattoo artist made a mistake and gave him a 31 -- much
less
> meaningful.
>

[jeff sinclair]

I thought it meant he wanted picture number 13, from the chart of pictures
to choose from.

but I know nothing about tatoos

Lou

[Promis1385]

ok
this is how it goes
"He`s getting a tatto,yeah he`s getting inck done
"He asked for a 13 but they drew a 31"
its part of the lyrics to OFFSRING`s
Pretty Fly For A White Guy

[Erin Wilson]

Since the early days of motorcycle gangs getting tattoos, the number
13 has been symbolic for the 13th letter of the alphabet "M"...
which means "marijuana" in street lingo... I don't know if that's what
the boys in Offspring were thinking about, but anyone that's ever read
anything about underground culture should know this small tidbit.

erin

---

Ron Inbar wrote:
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Ron

[John William Kuthe]

In article <3720...@news.inil.com>,

Dawn Clutter <dark...@foxberry.net> wrote:
>In tattoo lingo, it's the size of the needle, well, the number of needles. A

[chop]

Bzzzzt! Wrong, but thanks for playing.

A "13" might be a tattoo some might consider quite hip, cool, etc.,
you know, being the unlucky number? So wannabe Guy might try to
increase his waning cool potential by getting a tattoo of a "13", to
make him seem cooler! But, as Murphy insures, the uncool always f**k
up! So poor Guy SoUncool ended up with a tattoo artist that branded
him with a "31" instead, and forever more, has to display a ridiculous
tattoo!

Hee hee!

--
John Kuthe, aka cec.wustl.edu@jwk1, St. Louis, Missouri | MWA Homepage: |
First Job of Government: Protect people from government.| home.i1.net/ |
Second Job of Government: Protect people from each other.| ~akravetz/mwa.html |
It must *never* become the job of government to protect people from themselves!

[Dawn Clutter]

Well, thanks for the sarcasm.... sorry I don't know everything like you.

John William Kuthe wrote in message <7g005s$m...@ritz.cec.wustl.edu>...

[Sean Madden]

Maybe this guy is a real loser and tattooed himself.
13 upside down or viewed in a mirror would be 31 so maybe he tattooed
himself
while looking down at his arm or looked in a mirror to do the deed and ended
up with an inverted mess
I like Erin's idea thats is 13 for M and thus Doobie.
Sean Madden

[Denise Wong]

Lou,
I believe that 13 and 31 stand for m-13 and m-31
you know rite? Guns
Fire

jeff sinclair wrote in message <7frn2o$s14$1...@m2.c2.telstra-mm.net.au>...

[tylera...@gmail.com]

13 by itself as a tattoo or patchstands for Marijuana, as M is the 13th letter in the Alphabet. 31 means nothing just used to symbolize the irony of the artist's fuck up.

[tiko...@gmail.com]

Everyone is wrong🤣🤣🤣 13 in street lingo stands for the Mexican mob or ms-13

[wm.m.t...@gmail.com]

that makes the most sense to me.

[rachels...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 6:15:17 PM UTC-5, tiko...@gmail.com wrote:
> Everyone is wrong🤣🤣🤣 13 in street lingo stands for the Mexican mob or ms-13

MS-13 started in LA. It is doubtful that MS 13 is what Offspring had in mind.

The answer from Erin Wilson is most likely.

[rob.c...@gmail.com]

13 cool tattoo probably the Mary Jane interpretation is right but a tattooed 31 literally means “wank” in Turkish street parlance 3 looks like a gripping hand and the 1 - well you know what that looks like. So the lyric means he is such a looser that he wanted to link himself to illicit drugs but ended up being branded a wanker. That’s how I’ve always interpreted it anyway. Blessings...

[diiana....@gmail.com]

You are wrong.
ms-13 it’s not even a Mexican gang, it’s from 1-2 countries of Central America. That’s not even the meaning of the 13, in the song.

[hugob...@gmail.com]

Talk about bringing this thread from the dead this thread is 20 years old

[medwar...@gmail.com]

Amazing... This white guy who doesn't fit in, tried to get a 13 which is a very unlucky number, and just to his surprise, damn his luck that it got tattood backwards .. lucky number 13 huh? Or they were just High and 13 rolled better than 12 did off the tongue.

[ryanj...@gmail.com]

Holy shit this thread could legally buy a drink if it was a person

[Mack A. Damia]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2019 08:27:21 -0700 (PDT), rob.c...@gmail.com wrote:

>13 cool tattoo probably the Mary Jane interpretation is right but a tattooed 31 literally means “wank” in Turkish street parlance 3 looks like a gripping hand and the 1 - well you know what that looks like. So the lyric means he is such a looser that he wanted to link himself to illicit drugs but ended up being branded a wanker. That’s how I’ve always interpreted it anyway. Blessings...

The tattoo artist drew a transposition. 31 is a transposition of 13.

Fairly common mistake in bookkeeping/accounting. The difference is
always divisible by 9.