Hahaha, a verb? Sorry I wasn´t concentrated, I guess. Of cause it´s a noun or an adjective
Well , like I said my favorite tattoo would be " Loyal to those loyal to me" .
Some people understand it as " S**** me and I s**** you" , but what I exactly wanted to know was if it has this exact meaning in the english language or not and it seems like it doesn´t.
For me it´s not important, what strange people think. For me it´s important to know the meaning and to behave like the tattoo says.
Loyalty or loyal to the faithful are great ideas , too, no question!
Whatever you decide, just be sure the artist spells everything properly. And if you decide to use Old English as the font, for heaven’s sake, be sure it’s in upper AND lower case!
May I humbly suggest that the OP is NOT interested in revenge or screwing people or enemies, and simply wants to make a positive statement about being loyal to those who deserve his loyalty?
This is a complicated enough message that it wouldn’t really work for a tattoo in English. A shorter message loses the nuance. And a longer message makes it a cumbersome tattoo.
The closest thing I’ve ever seen is the Marines’ “Semper Fi”, but that’s definitely an American thing more than a general English-speaker thing.
That´s possible, but I know the meaning and the people who I´m loyal to, will be know it soon, too.
I don´t live in a country where everybody´s mother language is english, so most people would ask, before they belive it´s something negative or self-interested.
I bet most of them would ask me, if this is correct english like I asked you.
Even if I lived in England or America, not everybody would misunderstand the message, so I have a good feeling ,actually…
I like your phrase the way it is. It makes sense in English, it’s concise, and it doesn’t carry the negative connotation that others seem to think it does. It’s a perfectly fine tattoo. Get it.
On a separate note, you use too many commas in your sentences. For example, “I don´t need a girlfriend, who´s cheating on me and I don´t need friends ,who actually don´t want to be my friends,” shouldn’t have the commas before “who”, but it does need one between “on me” and “and I don’t”. This is because the clauses for “girlfriend” and “friends” are restrictive- they’re narrowing down which friends and girlfriends you’re talking about. Also, note the difference between the following:
If the “if” statement introduces the sentence, you need a comma.
You don’t need a comma if the “if” statement closes a sentence.
Not a native english speaker, but count me amongst the posters who find the original message perfectly fine. Of course, anybody can torture the sentence in order to make negative assumptions, but I’d assume that most would just pay attention to unadultered, positive, message.
I think that the phrasing in the title is the most succinct way to express this idea. It’s not a correct full sentence, but one wouldn’t usually see a full sentence in a context like this.
And I, too, wonder where English-language tattoos are trendy for non-English speakers. Ascenray is correct that in English-speaking countries, something like this would usually be done in Latin, but I guess everyone’s exotic to someone.
If I wanted a short tattoo message that captured this sentiment, I would say “loyal to loyalty”. Or even just “loyalty”.
The original sentence is grammatically correct. Some people might see it as vaguely threatening… “i don’t betray people who don’t betray me.” But o me it just sounds obvious, maybe even trite. Of course we don’t betray people who betray us. Of course loyalty is mutual, except in unusual circumstances. (forgive me for being harsh, but this is your lifetime skin we’re talking about).
I also think the original is fine. Personally I don’t get any “screw me” connotation from it.
jackdavinci’s “Loyal to the Loyal” is also good. It’s even more succinct and loses very little, if any, meaning. However “Loyal to the Faithful” IMO does not mean the exact same thing. I think what’s strong about using the same word twice is that it makes clear the reciprocal nature of the message. “Loyal to the Faithful” loses that. Again, IMO. Even tho this is GQ.
After I have had some time to think about it, I think you should get the following tattooed:
I am loyal to those that are loyal to me. This includes friends, family and girlfriends. If you have not been loyal to me then you really aren’t my friend. And if you are a girlfriend that has not been loyal to me, then it was not meant to be, because I don’t need a girlfriend that’s been cheating on me. And if you don’t want to be my friend, I don’t need friends like that. I will always be loyal to family. If you screw me, I will not neccessarily screw you, because that’s not what I mean here. Oh, and I’m a nice person.
You might want to reconsider the arm as a location, unless you’re willing to make the font size smaller.
