15+ Tattoos That Show Not Every Ink on the Body Is Art

Choosing a tattoo should be approached responsibly. An unsuccessful design, of course, can be removed, but this procedure is painful and expensive. We experienced a whole range of emotions when we read stories from people who got or saw tattoos, whose meaning was unclear to others.

• An older woman had a whole back tiger tattoo. It had “Leo’s forever” and their birthdates on the bottom. I asked her about it, and she told me she and her sister were both Leo’s. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she had a full-back tattoo of the wrong cat. © Bearacolypse / Reddit
• My current boss has a tattoo in Chinese that she got when she was 18. What does it say? “Italian.” © douggold11 / Reddit
• I was curious about what it meant, but I didn’t want to be rude. The girl had a teapot tattooed on her leg. It was a simple design, with a lid, a handle, and steam coming out of the spout. I stared at the teapot, wondering if there was a hidden message behind it until the bus arrived.

“I mostly just regret how large I got this one.”

• My ex got a wolf tattoo on his chest. OMG, it had crossed eyes and a fat weird face and for some reason, pine trees embedded in the fur. Ugh. Just, whyyy... © GabriellaJeremiah / Reddit
• My ex-husband got his company’s repo truck tattooed on his back. Massive. Even the phone number is clearly on the side of the vehicle. He doesn’t even drive the repo trucks. He works from home and tells the guys where to go to look for the vehicles. © LoveDietCokeMore / Reddit
• Had a coworker who wanted to get a set of tattoos. The series of tattoos she got were ladybugs, representing her kids and her parents, all on various parts of her body. One was on her chest, right above the spot for a mid-low cut top. Another was on the inside of her lower arm. They all looked horrible. No way did they look like ladybugs, not even right after she had them done. © RedHeadedStepDevil / Reddit

• Not a tattoo artist, but a friend of my cousin has the words “Your Name” tattooed on his body. So he goes around at bars betting people that he has “Your Name”. This man makes some decent money off of people. © TheBrutalLad / Reddit
• I went to high school with a kid with the last name “Strong”. On his 18th birthday, he got “only the Strong survive” in script across his chest. Strong was spelled wrong. The tattoo was saying, “Only the Strang survive.” © pearsmir13 / Reddit
• Not an artist but the guy I went to told me about someone who repeatedly came into the shop and only ever wanted sort of natural marks on his body circled. One day he shaved off his beard, found a spot or mole on his chin, and came in that day to have it circled. © HarisAhmed95 / Reddit

“Cover-up ideas for poor Nugget?”

• Once we got a lady who was 8 months pregnant and who wanted her baby’s due date down her spine. What if the baby was early or late? After some back and forth with the artist saying he was not comfortable with her being so close to due, they came to an agreement to put it on the side of her neck. © C-Horsey / Reddit
• My father’s friend had a portrait of Angelina Jolie tattooed on his shoulder. I don’t know how and why, but after that, he divorced his wife.
• I had to undergo surgery recently. I was trembling all over and feeling awful. An old nurse took my hand to insert a catheter and exclaimed with genuine admiration, “Oh, how lovely!” She was referring to my space pineapple tattoo.

“My first and only tattoo. It seemed like a good idea when I was 18.”

• My friend is a tattoo artist who creates amazing 3D images on the skin. Her son, who studies away from home, came to visit her. She was appalled by the terrible tattoos he had on his arm — crooked words and ugly drawings.
  — Mom, they were done by a great artist.
  — If you ever regret them, come to me. I’ll either fix them or cover them up.
  She later told me:
  — Why did he choose such awful designs? He could have waited for me, I would have given him a beautiful one during the holidays.
• A girl in our office has a tattoo on her neck that she thinks is cool. It has birds and the Latin phrase “Per aspera ad astra”, which means “Through hardships to the stars.” But for some reason, the last three words are written as one word and a letter is missing. I wonder why she picked this design. Did she not notice the spelling error?

“My wife doesn’t draw. She drew me a camel. So I got it tattooed. Love her.”

• I had some friends from Israel visiting me. I was walking down the street with their son when I ran into a neighbor who had a huge tattoo in Hebrew on her leg. We chatted for a bit, and the son of my friend read the tattoo carefully and whispered to me that it was wrong.
  I told her what he said, but she snapped at me that he was lying and that the tattoo was correct. To be honest, I trust the Hebrew skills of a Jewish kid more than a Spanish tattoo artist. © Elena Elena
• I got a tattoo on my left wrist, over the protruding bone, when I was 16 years old. I thought it was very cool. It said “No fear” in a fancy font.
  When I turned 20, I started working in an office. We had to wear a uniform — white top, black bottom. And often, rude customers would ask me, “What does that say, girl?” I got sick of it by the time I was 25, and the ink had faded anyway. I decided to get rid of the embarrassing tattoo.

Even celebrities sometimes regret the tattoos and cover them with new ones or remove them altogether.