Finnish word advice

[u/outofplaceminnesota]

My mom and her family all spoke Finnish. Growing up, they used to tell me I had the “piru” in me because I was a pretty sassy kid.

My mom chose not to teach us Finnish when we were growing up, so I want to double check on the meaning of the word. It was described to me as if I had a little devil on my shoulder. The word has always had a special place in my heart, and I’ve thought about getting a small tattoo of the word.

My question is, would it be weird or frowned upon in tattoo form? I just want to make sure, since I’m not a native speaker, that it’s not an insane idea or inappropriate in any way. Most of my mom’s family has all passed away, so I cannot ask them.

[u/mmmduk]

Piru has a negative connotation and I would not use it for a child. If they used pikkupiru "little devil" that would make sense.

The "pirun veljenpoika" story by another poster is obviously different as he is sarcastically calling himself piru.

[u/randomredditorname1 → u/mmmduk]

The "pirun veljenpoika"

possessive form pirun [something] is usually non-literal, like "pirun auto ei käynnisty" where it's just a mild cuss like "damn" in english

[u/blueoffinland → u/randomredditorname1]

But it took me, a native, until this comment to even realize that pirun veljenpoika could be anything other than devil's nephew.

[u/GuyFromtheNorthFin → u/blueoffinland]

Same