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

[t***@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.

[t***@gmail.com]

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

[r***@gmail.com]

Post by t***@gmail.com
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.

[d***@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.

[h***@gmail.com]

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

[m***@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.

[r***@gmail.com]

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

[w***@gmail.com]

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
---

Thanks in advance,
Ron

that makes the most sense to me.

[r***@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...

[Mack A. Damia]

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.

[Kamelia G.]

Thanks in advance,
Ron

Just wanted to say I found your thread in 2022 lol. Hope life's been well for since '99.