'I didn't think she'd actually do it': One-upping attention hog tries to steal her friend's Ghibli tattoo idea, but unknowingly tattoos the wrong dragon

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 4, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

Fans of a particular story, movie, tale, or series can get pretty into their favorite character's worlds, so much so that they're willing to inscribe their love on their bodies in the form of a tattoo. When someone has a tattoo of a character from their favorite fandom, you can usually assume that it was life-changing for them in some way; however, for the one-upping attention hog in this next story, she got a Studio Ghibli anime character tattooed on her body as a permanent indicator of her pettiness and ignorance. 

Because when you get the wrong dragon tattoo as payback, you're left looking like a fool. 

Spirited Away is one of those stories that has had a huge impact on an entire generation of anime lovers. Often regarded as a masterpiece in its own right, it's probably one of the most heavily tattooed fandoms. But it's not every day that a non-fan insists on getting a full tattoo sleeve of Haku the dragon.

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  • I lied to my pick-me "friend" and she got a tattoo based off of it
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  • I (25F) was introduced to Peggy (fake name) (25F) through a mutual friend. She had recently moved in to the friend's neighboring apartment unit and was quickly introduced to our friend group. Almost
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  • immediately, I could tell we weren't going to get along based off of some backhanded compliments that were given; but I decided that it was too quick to judge her fairly and invited her to a game night that a friend and I were hosting.
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  • Huge mistake. Game one: Sardines. During a drunken game of sardines in the dark, Peggy faked a fall and pushed my head into a shelf. How do I know she faked it? Because she
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  • literally told me in front of everyone and LAUGHED about it saying "I found him first- that's why I pushed you".
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  • Game two: Kings cup. Peggy called me out during the "never have I ever" portion for having gone through a divorce. Talking about it normally wouldn't have bothered me since
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  • everyone who was there already knew about it and were really supportive during that time- but it was the fact that she was trying to single me out and shame me for it.
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  • Throughout the rest of the night this kind of behavior continued, and by the end, I was thoroughly convinced she had some sort of vendetta against me.
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  • Finding out what -or in my case WHO- it was, took almost no time at all. One of our friends (who we'll call Mark) was in attendance that first night.
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  • Mark (28M) is a tall, kind, funny, and generally attractive guy. Essentially, he's catnip for her type. At this time, we were pretty close friends and Peggy did not like that. For the next 6
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  • months, anytime he was around I had to deal with the most ridiculous, awkward, and petty attempts of her trying to single me out or embarrass me.
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  • Now here's where the tattoo comes into play: I had been planning on getting a dragon tattoo for over a year. I am fully aware that dragons are a common and trending tattoo, but I
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  • wanted it anyways because it was special to me and my mom. I had even worked with my tattoo artist on incorporating her favorite flowers into the piece and figuring out what kind of style/other details I wanted.
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  • About a month before my appointment, Peggy heard a friend and I talking about the tattoo and started asking questions. I swear I could see the moment the lightbulb went off in her head because she grew the biggest -eating grin I I have ever seen.
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  • My lightbulb moment happened shortly after. When she asked where and what kind of dragon tattoo | wanted to get, I lied. I told her about how much I loved the movie "Spirited Away"
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  • (because I do- it's a banger) and went on a tangent about how I grew up on that movie, how my dad showed it to me, and that, "it'd be cool if he (Haku) was wrapping around my arm or something".
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  • (If you haven't seen the movie, one of the main characters is a boy named Haku who turns into a dragon)
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  • Peggy had never seen this movie before, so I encouraged her to check it out and ended the conversation there.
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  • Now, considering she had never seen it before, I didn't think she'd actually do it. But Reddit. She did it. And it wasn't just a tiny-cutesy little thing either. She committed to my EXACT DESCRIPTION. The thing is freaking huge
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  • Cheezburger Image 10549702400
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  • When she showed it to me two weeks later, I was in shock and she probably thought I was upset for taking something from me.
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  • But I went home that night and switched between feeling awful for lying to her and laughing for how utterly unbelievable she was for doing it. 2 years later and I'm still doing that.
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  • I had confessed to a friend recently about my lie and that's when she told me. She went to the tattoo appointment with Peggy that day. And word for word Peggy had said, "She's going to be so upset. This is like the exact tattoo she wanted".
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  • knouqs⚫ I don't know if this is petty revenge, but holy sh, that's a good one. A meaningless tattoo trap. It's got my stamp of approval.
    via knouqs

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Tags

deserved friendship random fandom Haku fandom Fan Art tattoos studio ghibli payback funny spirited away
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