Friendship means many things to many people, and is expressed in many ways too.

How this 80-year-old man chose to show it was in a lengthy Chinese tattoo on his arms, for a dear friend of his who passed away recently:

Its translation:

Once it's gone it's gone,

and there's no trace of it till the ends of the earth...

If we bid farewell today, when will we meet again?

Tattoo artist Alan Q (who would prefer his surname to be reflected that way) relates the story of what happened on Monday — the old man walked into his shop at Golden Mile Complex requesting a tattoo. At the sight of his frail frame, Q naturally was concerned about his ability to handle the pain, but he handed him the three lines of script above, requesting that it be drawn onto his arms.

Cost was not a factor, he added — this was for a dear friend of his, whom he knew for 45 years, who had just passed away, and he wanted to do this as a way to remember him.

Q was so moved by his brave gesture that he didn't want to charge for the work he did, quoting the old man just $10. The latter refused, though, insisting it could not possibly be that cheap and thrust $200 into Q's hand.

In a now-viral (more than 1,800 shares) Facebook post relating this story, Q said he actually didn't want to take money at all, but was worried the old man, his oldest-ever customer in his 12 years of tattooing experience, would think he was taking pity on him. He added that he ended up keeping $10 and donating the rest.

Comments on Q's Facebook post indicated that the man goes by the name of Peter or Chunhao, and he is a well-respected undertaker in Geylang Bahru:

Speaking with Mothership.sg on Tuesday afternoon, Q also shared that he learned from people who contacted him that the man had been taking care of this friend of his till the very end, throughout their multi-decade friendship.

Q, a self-taught artist who dropped out of school more than 10 years ago, said this particular tattooing job was by far his most meaningful and special experience as a tattoo artist too.

"Many people in the industry know him," he said. "Everyone told me that this grandpa (has) gained a lot of respect from people around. It's hard to find people like him anymore."

Read his Facebook post relating the story about him here: