What does my tattoo actually mean?

[Vina DB]

Hi guys!

So I've had this tattoo for about 15 years, and I know what it's supposed to mean, but when I google the Chinese sign for it, I see a totally different thing. 
Mine is supposed to be the sign for "cannabis" (don't judge me, I was a teenager back then lol). 

So - what does my Chinese tattoo actually mean? Does it mean anything at all? ?
I usually just say "it's a little puppet so I never get lonely" ? Because yeah, not really proud of what it is supposed to mean lol.

 

See photo here: Link tattoo

Thanks in advance! 

[Dlezcano]

It's an outdated character that means limonene.

[Demonic_Duck]

Kinda interesting, looks like it could either one of 2 separate characters:

• Traditional character 苧 (simplied version 苎), pronounced zhù. It's a "bound form", meaning it's never normally used on its own, only as part of multi-character words: In this case 苧麻, meaning rush (tall grass) / bulrush / Boehmeria / ramie.
• Simplified character 苧 (traditional version 薴), pronounced níng. Also a bound form, in this case forming part of the word 苧烯, limonene. CC-CEDICT, a crowdsourced Chinese-English dictionary, also gives tangled / in disarray as secondary meanings.

Of those, the calligraphy uses two distinct crosses for the 艹 part, which is usually only used in Traditional Chinese, so the first reading would be more "plausible" (obviously neither of them are really plausible as it's an isolated bound form on a tattoo that doesn't say what it's meant to say). But... the really interesting thing is that the second character, 麻, in 苧麻 is the same as the second character in 大麻, hemp/cannabis. And there's even an alternate word 麻苧, meaning "大麻和苧麻" hemp (Cannabis sativa) and ramie.

 

So it definitely doesn't mean cannabis, but it's quite literally cannabis adjacent... it's the next character along. I'd be fascinated to know how your tattoo artist found this character, because it's not common at all, whereas 麻 is super common (not that 麻 on its own would be a good translation for "cannabis" either, as it has a ton of other meanings. But it at least would be a more obvious one).

 

Still, if you ever end up going to China, it's probably a good thing you don't have a tattoo that says "cannabis", as it could lead to some awkward questions at customs ?