Drake’s new tattoo has some people scratching their heads about its meaning, but it makes perfect sense to those who were born and raised in Toronto — or to those who speak and understand Arabic.
On Saturday (November 18), photographer Brent Kore took to his Instagram stories to post a photo of The 6 God’s new tattoo, which reads “miskeen.” The tattoo was over Drake’s right eyebrow.
Eagle-eyed fans noted that the word “miskeen” is a common turn of phrase in Toronto, and comes from the Arabic word مِسْكِين, or miskin. The word derives from the Classical Syriac and means “poor” or “misfortunate.” The Toronto slang “miskeen,” a derivative of that Arabic word, comes from the large Somali community in Toronto (who speak a dialect of Arabic), and means the same thing.
Check out the tattoo below.
Drake gets a new face tattoo of a Toronto slang term with Arabic roots https://t.co/3Yh0bOWXIA
📸: @BrentKorepic.twitter.com/MbQuVhtl90
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) November 19, 2023
It’s unclear what motivated Drake to get this tattoo, but this isn’t the first time that Drake has gotten one on his face.
Last August, Los Angeles-based tattoo artist NAL shared a video of Drizzy getting his mom’s initials, “SG,” tatted under his left eye on his Instagram page, writing in the caption, “The boi @champagnepapi.”
Drake debuted the tattoo of his mother Sandra Gale’s initials days after his father’s 2017 tattoo — a portrait of the rapper and OVO leader’s face on his shoulder — resurfaced online.
Instead of having gratitude towards the gesture, Drake laughed at the art and sarcastically wondered how close the two really were.
“@therealdennisg I was just sitting here thinking why you do me like this we family,” Drizzy captioned the post, capping it with a few laughing emojis to boot.
Then, last December, Drake paid tribute to Virgil Abloh by getting a tattoo of the late fashion icon throwing a kite down a Louis Vuitton runway during the 2018 Paris Fashion Week.
The 6 God’s infatuation with tattoos dates back years. He has portraits of singers Aaliyah and Sade, of his father Dennis Graham, and tribute tattoos for Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant, and his mentor, Young Money co-founder Lil Wayne.
Drizzy also has tattoos of his son Adonis, producer Noah “40” Shebib, and Aaliyah.
On his forearm, Drake has a tattoo of The Beatles’ John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from the Abbey Road album cover, except he’s standing in front of them waving. The tattoo debuted after he broke the band’s record for the highest number of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 songs in a single calendar year in 2018.