I find it interesting that so many people in this thread end their interpretation with something like "end of story", or belittling other people's interpretations. I think if you were to ask NWR himself he would be extremely open to different interpretations of this film, both positive and negative in outcome, because with other films of his he has made it a point to come out publicly in saying he has made them to be very open to interpretation, and refuses to give any objective truth to what he was attempting to communicate.
All of that being said, here is my subjective interpretation:
I believe in the final moments of the film Tony has finally lived up to the meaning of the tattoo on the back of his head: respect.
I don't mean respect from others, as it is communicated very early on that would be impossible; in this criminal caste, he is the lowest there is, the only acceptance he has coming from the fact his father has power (remember, the trilogy as a whole is about power dynamics in Copenhagen's criminal caste system, the protagonist of the first Pusher being the lowest and trying to move up, the protagonist of the third Pusher being the highest and trying not to lose his stature).
During the sex scene, the prostitutes belittle Tony, and though he tries to make up excuses, he clearly has a lack of respect for himself, symbolized by his self-imposed impotency.
At one point, he communicates interest in getting back with the mother of his (?) child, but this is not an option to her because of who she sees him as, her lack of respect or admiration of him (constantly calling him a "loser", like everyone does), wanting somebody who could give her a different life or has a higher social status.
And most importantly, throughout the entire film, he does everything he possibly can to earn the respect of his father. In fact, that is his main motivation, the reason he does almost everything he does, to be a criminal his father could be proud of.
In the final scene with his father, Tony realizes that there is nothing he could ever do to earn his father's respect, partly because of his past, and partly because his mother, from which he came, never had his father's respect. In that moment, perhaps subconsciously, confronting his father (killing him), is the only respectable action he has, the only path he could go down to stop his father's belittlement and retain any ounce of self-respect he has.
In this way, it is no coincidence that when he has dispatched his own father, he goes to his child to accept his responsibility as a father himself.
Leaving the cigarettes is part of this, it is the most minor drug he ingests, but he does so throughout the film, and giving up this habit is a form of self-respect, self-control and the restraint from slowly killing one's self. Taking the baby from the mother, who clearly doesn't respect him, the child, or herself (by the way she treats everybody and is clearly willing to go to any length for drugs, there are several implications she dabbles in prostitution herself, and she doesn't even want the baby, she only uses it to maintain power), and at least attempting to give that child a good life outside of crime, at least attempting to break the mold of his own father/child relationship, at least attempting to become a good father himself, is the only path he could have taken to give himself self-respect.
Whatever fate he is doomed to after the film ends, good or bad, prison or parenthood, is superfluous to the context of the story and theme contained with the film. All that matters in those last moments is that he has earned his self-respect. In the final shot of the film, where respect is literally tattooed on his self, is the moment he has finally earned that respect, no longer futilely attempting to demand it from others, but taking the actions required to give it to himself.
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