Drake Got New Face Ink Featuring a Common Hometown Arabic Slang Phrase

Drake added some more ink to his face recently, as seen in pictures over the weekend in which some Arabic script was spotted above the rapper’s right eyebrow. As spotted by HipHopDX, on Saturday (Nov. 18), photographer Brent Kore posted an image of Drizzy’s new face art on his Instagram Stories, capturing the phrase “miskeen” in an arch over Drake’s eye.

The phrase is commonly used in the large Somali community in Drake’s Toronto home town and comes from the Arabic word “miskin,” which is commonly defined as “misfortunate” or “poor”; the University of Toronto magazine gave the translation as “a pathetic person or situation.” Check out an image of the tattoo here. At press time it did not appear that Drake had posted an image of his latest ink or explained its significance.

It joins another homage on his face that the 6 God got last summer, his mother’s initials, SG (for Sandra Gale), under his left eye.

Drake’s all-time Billboard Music Awards record of 12 trophies in one night (2019) was almost broken on Sunday (Nov. 19) when Morgan Wallen pulled in 11 awards at the 2023 show. With 10 wins on Sunday, Taylor swift pulled into a tie with Drake for all-time BBMA wins at 39 each. Drake took home top rap artist for a record-extending fifth time, top rap tour for the second time, and top rap album (Her Loss) and top rap song (“Rich Flex”) for his successful collaboration with 21 Savage.

On Friday, Drake released the Scary Hours 3 EP, a six-song collection of freshly-recorded tracks tacked on to the new edition of his recent For All the Dogs album.