Knuckle tattoos: double or nothing

Tattoos evolve. What used to be seen as a symbol of violence or prison is now in vogue. This is what happened to knuckle tattoos, which they are usually used to express a message or a feeling.

The history of knuckle tattoos did not start out well, as they were the place where the prisoners tattooed the acronym ACAB, that respond to the expression All corps are bastards (TAll the cops are bastards). It is not surprising that the jailers did not have (and do not have) a good reputation among the incarcerated.

But, just as such acronyms have spread, so have tattoos in this area of the body. Currently, the most normal thing is that people who tattoo their knuckles do it with two different words of four letters each or with the same eight-letter word. This is because when you clench your fist, the knuckle space of the thumb is not visible, so only the remaining four are visible.

The two most common words for tattooing in this area are HATE-LOVE or its equivalent in Spanish AMOR-ODIO (It is a good coincidence that in both languages the number of letters corresponds). However, there are other options of letters that can be tattooed.

LIVE-LIFE: In this case, it is not a question of two independent words, but a syntactic construction that would be translated as Live the life. This tattoo takes advantage of the similarity between these two words, which coincide in number of letters, meanings and practically in spelling

CARLESS: Your translation could be neglected Or better, carefree. With it you express that what they want to say about you does not matter to you. It is a quite suitable word for tattooing, since there are people who do not look favorably on those who are tattooed.

HARD LIFE (or, less often, EASY LIFE): The HARD LIFE tattoo is clear, it is chosen to always keep in mind that life is hard. As for its opposite, it is not usual to find it, but its meaning would be the opposite.

DROP DEAD: Drop Dead is a clothing brand that became very popular at one time. Its main representative is Oliver Sykes, lead singer of the metal band Bring Me The Horizon. It does not have much representation, it is simply a form of "propaganda" that fits this tattoo model.

DEAD LOVE: These words that mean dead love they symbolize a negative view of love, probably an unrequited love, a broken love or a finished love. Again, create a vision of a hard life in which you are going to have to face a heartbreak that is going to hurt you. The reason the word is used dead instead of bad o broken (bad y broken, respectively) is:

the number of words: when using those other words, we could not fit them into the available skin spaces, and
that you want to praise the pain that derives from that lack of love. It is a matter of semantics that shows the desire to express the greatest pain.

HATE-LOVE: This tattoo that we have talked about previously is the most common. It can have different interpretations. First of all, it can represent both sides of the same coin, Love and hate. But they can also exemplify that expression that says From love to hate there is a step, since, between hand and hand, there is not a great distance.

It is also usual that in this type of tattoos the four suits of the French deck are found: spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds, or a series of musical signs.

But this type of tattoo, as we have already said, they have become a fad. Today you can find any word or expression that meets the requirement of all eight letters. Therefore, it is easy to see people with tattoos like DAMN FOOL (fool) or LEMONADE (lemonade). For these tattoos, the fact that the words are chosen in English is not always because they are considered more cool, but because the number of letters of each word in this language is usually less.

The point is that These are very striking tattoos, but of small dimensions, so they are a good choice for lovers of tattoos of this style. Not sure which word you would choose? Take a look at these examples.