“Jeff” emailed me asking about this tattoo he got when he was younger. At first he thought it meant “Strength”, he was into Karate at the time. Several recent events have led to him to believe that his tattoo does not mean “strength”.
Both characters are correct.
The character on the left 小 means “small”, “tiny” or “insignificant”, and the other 畜 means “livestock” or “domestic animals”.
Although in the classic Chinese literature 易經 (I Ching), there is a mentioning about 小畜:
Hexagram 9 is named 小畜 , "Small Accumulating". Other variations include "the taming power of the small" and "small harvest".
Just what exactly the “small harvest” is about, only “Jeff” would know.
