'[She] thought it said "Strength." What it said was, "Simplified Chinese"': 25+ Regrettable tattoo choices

Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor

Jul 25, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

When people get tattoos, they often consider what they love and cherish, and avoid thinking about the opinions of others. That's all well and good; if an art piece is forever inked onto your body, you should love it with all your heart. But there's an asterisk here: you should love it, because people are going to ask about it constantly. If you have a name, people will ask who that is. If you have a symbol or a little animal, people will ask what that means. It's the kind of experience you won't understand until you actually get tattoos, and have to look at them every day, and deal with the constant questions.

The more public of an area you choose for your tattoo, the higher the chances are you'll be explaining it. Like there's one person who tattooed "Jason" on his own face. He's Jason. He probably gets asked constantly if Jason is his husband or son! Then, the follow up question: why would one tattoo one's own name on their face? Why choose the face instead of an arm or leg? There are many follow-up questions that Jason is going to spend hours of his one short life explaining to random people who have a burning desire to find out.

Other people made the mistake of getting a tattoo in another language without double-checking the spelling first…yikes! You can check out a bunch of different ways not to get tattooed down below.

Up next, read about "the most expensive phone calls on the planet," which were taken by an hourly worker with a confused boss.