'He realized he missed an "L"': 20+ Regrettable tattoos

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 22, 2024 3:00 PM EST

Tattoos are forever, don't forget it! 

If you decide to get yourself tatted, perhaps don't let your craziest friends do the artwork for you. The temptation is understandable: if you can buy a tattoo machine online, can't anyone operate one? It looks and acts similar to a pen, so some people think they can pick up the artwork with no practice at all. Many hard partiers just shrug their shoulders and let their friends go wild, drawing or writing whatever they please. It makes sense in the moment: you love your pals, and you want to commemorate the good times. 

Though some people get their tattoos and love all of them forever, others start to change their minds about their impulse artwork after a while. Some Redditors who commented below settled down and realized that their spouses didn't like their salacious artwork, while others got tired of explaining why their tats looked so odd. All of these tales are compiled below after one person asked, "Redditors who remove tattoos for living, what are some of the weirdest/funniest tattoos you had to remove?" Most comments were from those who just witnessed crazy tattoos or their removals, but a few actual artists chimed in with their own anecdotes. 

Up next, these people shared the foods they'll never eat again, like one person who was put off donuts after eating on that "had been fried in oil used to fry fish." 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9884118784
    via Waldemar on Unsplash
  • 02
    Redditors who remove tattoos for living, what are some of the weirdest/funniest tattoos you had to remove?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    Fictitious_Pulp I met a girl in Portland who worked at a clinic that removes tattoos. I asked her this same question and she told me she saw a guy who had a white fence tattooed just under his eyes and down his face. from Like that Home Improvement.
    via u/Fictitious_Pulp
  • 04
    DOOM TAPES captainmagictrousers My friend has "I Love Robin" tattooed on his arm. When he and Robin broke up, I told him he should add "And Also Batman". He's just getting it removed instead. :(
    via u/captainmagictrousers
  • 05
    InhumanMonolith • Recently got my first tattoos, and made smalltalk with the artist. I asked him this same question regarding cover-ups, to which he told me (through a guilty smile) that a bloke came in asking to cover up his "R.I.P." tattoo.
    via u/InhumanMonolith
  • 06
    When asked why, the guy replied that he'd found out that she wasn't dead.
    via u/InhumanMonolith
  • 07
    OnlyWearing1Sock. Back in the 70's my grandfather and his drunk friends decided to get tattoos. My grandfather wanted to get "born loser" on his forearm so one of his female friends said she'd do it for him. When he woke up the next morning he saw that his tattoo said
    via u/OnlyWearing1Sock
  • 08
    "Born Looser -MG" not only did the girl misspell loser she also initialed the tattoo to show that she did it. A few years ago my dad and I wanted to get a tattoo of our family crest and underneath it we got "born looser" in Latin to honor his stupid mistake
    via u/OnlyWearing1Sock
  • 09
    gradeahonky When I lived in Hollywood I went to a party for a neighbor who was moving away. He wanted to commemorate his time there by getting wasted, and then tattooing himself with his own tattoo gun on the side of his foot. "Hollywood"
    via u/gradeahonky
  • 10
    I watched in fascination as this guy struggled, writhing in pain, to write "Holywood" on his foot (which was upside down to him). He realized he missed an L and managed to squeak another one in, albeit sloppily.
    via u/gradeahonky
  • 11
    I've never been tattooed and that was the first one I saw done. That same night another guy tattooed a mustache on his pointer finger so he could put it up to his lip at any time. That was his first tattoo and he seemed like he really regretted it the next morning.
    via u/gradeahonky
  • 12
    The other guy didn't though. I liked both of those dudes.
    via u/gradeahonky
  • 13
    My dad told me a story of when one guy had to get it removed. His name was Gary and had gotten his name tattooed on his knuckles. Somehow, he lost one finger (not sure to what).
    via r/AskReddit
  • 14
    You guessed it, the finger he lost was the one with the R on it, so now his tattoo said GAY.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 15
    cybergern My ex has "To see the world in a grain sand" on her ankle. Yup, artist forgot the "of". She never did get it removed, but she got a good deal out of it, in her opinion.
    via u/cybergern
  • 16
    ihatepizzaa Dutch international and player of Feyenoord Jordy Clasie has a tattoo that says You mean everyting to me. EVERYTING. Didn't remove it yet though.
    via u/ihatepizzaa
  • 17
    wilhelm11235 I tattooed "Bill was here" on my friend's calf with his tattoo gun, at his request. Despite me trying to convince him not to let me do this. My name is Bill. Actually I just did the "B", everyone present did a different letter, and none of us had ever given a tattoo before. It got mad infected.
    via u/wilhelm11235
  • 18
    LaserAwayTatRemoval. My company is the largest tattoo removal company in the US and about 50% of all tattoo removals are of other people's names. Don't do it. It's a curse, I swear.
    via u/LaserAwayTatRemoval
  • 19
    littlekittenbiglion I met someone who had their nickname tattooed onto their wrist. It literally said "jessy". She had it covered up with a pig.
    via u/littlekittenbiglion
  • 20
    Marsandtherealgirl. Not a removal, but a guy came into the tattoo shop with some indistinguishable blob old blue/black of color on his arm. In case you don't know how cover ups work, you have to be able to incorporate the original tattoo somehow. You can only cover dark blobby color
    via u/Marsandtherealgirl
  • 21
    with dark color and distracting lines etc. roses are used in many cover ups because you can put a big dark rose over most old tattoos. Anyhow, this fine gentleman asked if he could get this black blue blob covered up with a portrait of his daughter's face. My friend just looked at
    via u/Marsandtherealgirl
  • 22
    him and said "yeah sure, if you want a portrait of her with that tattoo on her face." The guy didn't find this whole thing nearly as funny as I did.
    via u/Marsandtherealgirl
  • 23
    [deleted] Maybe 10 years ago Billy Connolly did an excellent TV show where he toured New Zealand on a motor cycle. At one point he visited a traditional Moari tattooist and asked him what the worst tattoo he had ever heard of was. The man related the story of a Scottish soldier fighting in the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 24
    Korean war who ended up in a tattoo parlor whilst on leave. He asks the man for a full back tattoo of a Thistle and the words "Scotland Forever". You know what a thistle is don't you? He asks the man, whose English is not great. The tattooist mimes blowing on a whistle. NO! a Thistle.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    Still the tattooist thinks he means a whistle so the Scotsman grabs a piece of paper and draws a picture of a thistle. Ahh, a thistle! The tattooist knows exactly what he wants now. With the mistake cleared up they get down to business. The tattoo covers the mans whole back and takes an agonising 8 hours to complete.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 26
    When he finally gets off the bed the Tattooist holds up a mirror and the Scotsman sees his beautiful tattoo. The words "Scotland forever" and a huge, full colour pineapple.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 27
    sysroot107 This isn't a "removal" but still interesting to me. A guy at my gym had his wedding band tattoo'd since he's a helicopter mechanic and didn't want it to get caught on something (and of course didn't want to lose it by taking it on/off all the time).
    via u/sysroot107
  • 28
    She cheated on him, they divorced, so he decided to turn the tattoo ring into something cool. He went to the parlor, looked through some ideas, then said "meh, just make the whole thing black." "The whole finger?" "Yeh, just make the whole finger black." We now call him Billy Black Finger.
    via u/sysroot107
  • 29
    the_pascal_avenger. A friend of a friend had a tattoo pen. She got drunk and wanted to ring in the new year with a commemorative tattoo. She up spectacularly and as of 1/1/2013 she has "S13" on her upper thigh, upside down to anyone else.
    via u/the_pascal_avenger
  • 30
    + TGStheuglyone I know someone who has a half-sleeve of Bob Barker. She still has it, as it has personal meaning to her... but it that bed. is creepy in
    via u/TGStheuglyone
  • 31
    CONTE ON DOWN
    via u/TGStheuglyone
  • 32
    sumsofbeaches My parents dated each other since a young age however my dad felt he wanted a change their senior year of high school and broke up with her for two weeks. In that two weeks he found a new girlfriend, got crazy, tattooed his new girlfriend's initials on
    via u/sumsofbeaches
  • 33
    his arm, AND decided he wanted my mom back. He came back to her with a different girls initials on his forearm. He promptly had to get that covered.
    via u/sumsofbeaches
  • 34
    exploringkoala Doesn't quite answer your question, but my dad had a badass tattoo that he then later covered up. Used to box back in the day and had that greaser/50's look. He would roll up his t shirt sleeves just high enough where you could see an arrow pointing up, but couldn't see past that.
    via u/exploringkoala
  • 35
    People would usually ask what the arrow is pointing to and he would pull up his sleeve to his shoulder to show them. It said " You". Now that he's older, its an arrow pointing up to a solid rectangle. Man my dad was so much cooler than me.
    via u/exploringkoala
  • 36
    Whatever_Works_Man. A guy named "Ole" (im from Denmark) Had the phrase " You" around his neck. He was known in town as -Ole He got older and probably realized what a up tattoo it was and got it covered, with flowers.. Now he is known as "Flower-Ole"
    via u/Whatever_Works_Man
  • 37
    freakingheather My brother, when he was married, had his wife's name tattooed on his left arm. Since the divorce, the tattoo now reads" Kristy....Is A
    via u/freakingheather
  • 38
    chimpansies Saw an employee at Waffle House that had the Waffle House logo tattooed on his arm. Now THAT's dedication.
    via u/chimpansies

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