It means life. It also means RAW — as on a beer tap.

What a Japanese person actually thinks
Genuinely split. Half the readers get the profound one, half get a beer glass. In an izakaya '生!' is how you order a draft, and that's a very frequent daily encounter with this character.

Meaning

Literally: life; raw; to be born
Actually: Life, birth, living. Read *nama*, it means raw or unprocessed — 生ビール (draft beer), 生卵 (raw egg), 生魚 (raw fish).

Scores

Naturalness●●●●●

One of the most common characters in the language — which is exactly why it has so many readings.

Coolness●●●●●

Clean five-stroke character that ages well. The ambiguity is the whole problem.

Watch out

medium生 alone on a sign overwhelmingly means draft beer or raw food. It is the single most common way Japanese people encounter this character in isolation.

Get this instead

命 inochi
life; the life one has

Unambiguously *life* — the thing you can lose. No food readings at all. Stronger and more serious.
生きる ikiru
to live

Adding the okurigana locks in the verb reading. Longer, but no ambiguity.

On skin

生

Orientation: either

Mincho.