Misspelled tattoos

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…and many other misspelled tattoos here. (Click Orlando, via NextDraft)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://www.facebook.com/will.fertman Will Fertman

Surely you’ve encountered the Japanese & Chinese-character version of this blog? http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/
- AviSolomon
  
  Hebrew too…
  http://www.badhebrew.com/
petej

#17 is a terrible shop. looks like they just flipped the “a” and pasted it.
Mister44

What do you do when this happens?
- Navin_Johnson
  
  Axe for you’re munny bac.
- teapot
  
  Serious answer: it depends on who screwed up. If you ask the artist to write “blah blah” they will make a stencil or draw a simplified marker version on you. Before they start tattooing they should ask you if it’s OK. If you gave them a printout that had correct spelling and they somehow screwed it up then the onus is on them to rectify it at no charge. Depending on a number of variables (and the skill of the artist) a good cover-up will be very hard to notice. If the customer provides incorrect spelling on a source image and says that’s what they want then it’s basically their problem because they got what they asked for.
  
  My partner is not a native english speaker, but is a tattoo artist in an english-speaking country. Customers have come in to the store with absolute confidence their spelling is right. Even without english as a first language she knew their spelling was wrong and told them to go to the net cafe and check it. They sheepishly returned later with corrected spelling. Bottom line: there is no IQ requirement for being a tattoo artist so make sure you go in with correct spelling. Not all artists will be smart enough to tell you your spelling is wrong.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Some people would have to use up their whole six degrees of separation in order to find someone who can spell.
Gary61

more crappy tattoos:
http://failblog.cheezburger.com/ugliesttattoos
- teapot
  
  Original and the best.
Antinous / Moderator

Some of those, like ‘I am blest’ are British, poetic or archaic spellings.
- Jake0748
  
  Yeah, I wuz gonna say… nothing wrong with “blest”. But most of them are sad.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Some of them like Wreckless may be wordplay. Or a brand name.
- Ipo
  
  That’s fuckt up.
- tinydancer
  
  And ‘Mathew’ is a perfectly normal alternative spelling of ‘Matthew’.
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    Yeah, but it’s specifically referencing The Gospel of Matthew, not just any “Matthew”. Are there people who refer to biblical Matthew as “Mathew”..? I think it’s an obvious misspelling, even if there are some other people out there who go by “Mathew”.
    - CLamb
      
      Spelling Matthew in any language but Greek may be considered incorrect.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Good catch…….., so you think they thought “Mathew” was the correct way to spell it?
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        It’s a Hebrew name.
Ipo

My favourite was No. 2:
“To strong to loose”

I’m considering getting that done on my forehead.

To all the others I say:
Don’t you people realize that a tattoo is nearly as permanent as a statement written on the internets.
Have a literate person tell you what it says.
If you don’t know one, find one.
evanismyname

You could save that tattoo with a ” / ”
Your / MyOnly Hope
PrettyBoyTim

I was surprised at how depressing I found that gallery.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
  
  Yeah, and depressing on multiple levels.
  - habbi1974
    
    That’s why I don’t even dare to watch it…
http://www.facebook.com/patt.terry Patrick Terry

I don’t see what is wrong with number 5? Dance like no one is watching?

To Thy Known Self Be True is pretty hilarious. Do you think this was intentional?
- bigyaz
  
  It’s not the most egregious error compared to most, but there is no such word as “noone.” It’s “no one.”
  - Tribune
    
    maybe if she/he is standing up it spaces properly?
  - CLamb
    
    It works if someone named “Noone” is your dance instructor.
buddy66

Won hopes so.
unaboomer

I wish I had a cameraphone when I was a kid so I could have captured an image of the moron skater jerk in high school proudly showing off his (accidental) “Minor Treat” tattoo. I hear he covered it with ivy. Sad.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  But I was promised a Major Treat!
http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

My favorite is the sign for the Tattu shop.

What do you do when you have a gigantic tattoo saying Puerto Rirco on your back? Or Ledgends Live On on your chest?
- cscott
  
  I was thinking maybe that kid is a really big Heath Ledger fan, and it was world play. The Puerto Rirco one is just devastating.
penguinchris

You’d think the tattoo shops would have an incentive to make sure things were correct… I mean the customers in at least some cases surely share some of the blame, but not always and even if it is the customer’s fault they’re still going to get rather annoyed at the shop when they figure it out.

But in reality I bet some of these people still don’t know that there’s anything wrong with their tattoos…
- danimagoo
  
  I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of these weren’t done in shops, but in someone’s home. I think every time I mention that I’m thinking of getting another tattoo, someone speaks up and says, “Hey, my cousin’s best friend’s boyfriend does tattoos. He’s got the machine and everything. Want me to get his number for you?”
- http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G
  
  There’s a tattoo parlor in Seattle that misspelled the word tattoos in its big sign. “Supergenius Tattoo’s.”
http://profiles.google.com/substancemcgravitas Substance McGravitas

Brett Michaels has an “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” tattoo using “it’s”. Or maybe he’s lasered it out by now, but this search works.
terrycarroll

“Vicous” was the nickname of a squatter in the flat I was trying to move into in the Lower Haight in the early 1980s. He got the name from his misspelled tattoo. Everybody called him that, including, I believe, himself. Having to deal with him, I realized that he was fortunate in the misspelling. He couldn’t have lived up to his intended “Vicious” (though “Viscous” probably would’ve fit — but he was too thick to know that word).
http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

I’m sure 24 is a deliberate misspelling. Only because I know someone else that has it deliberately misspelled, and as far as misspelled tattoo’s go, it is pretty damn funny.

I’m all for stupid/silly/funny tattoos, providing you’re aware that they’re stupid/silly/funny before getting them. My friend’s rose with the banner “Name” underneath is a particular favourite.
scorzonera

Ashford in the Water church, Derbyshire, England – there’s a four foot tall 19th c. gravestone into which is carefully carved “Your always in our hearts”.
Always makes me cringe when I see it, never have the camera with me.
- IronEdithKidd
  
  You don’t own a mobile phone?
  - Little Mouse
    
    Not all phones have cameras. I’m still using my “brick” after 10 years and the only “advance” feature it has is being able to use it as an alarm clock. On the upside it retains a charge for more than 6 seconds. :)
    - IronEdithKidd
      
      The phone I had in 2002 had a camera. I didn’t really want one, really didn’t need one, but cameras were becoming the “it” thing in phones at that time, making it difficult to avoid.
      
      The phone I have now has better battery life than the phone I had in 2002. So, pffftttt!
      - Little Mouse
        
        Hah. I guess all my friends just pick awful phones then, or use them in power-nomming activities way too much. Probably a bit of both. I hope my brick never dies, I’ll never be able to decide on a replacement! :)
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I don’t.
    - IronEdithKidd
      
      Why would you? You’re always right here for us to find you.
  - GTMoogle
    
    My wife has tried to avoid mobile phones with cameras for years because it’s a security hassle.
http://twitter.com/PhilMoscovitch Philip Moscovitch

Local tattoo parlour recently had to pay for a spelling mistake (may or may not be #26 in the slideshow).
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/07/03/ns-misspelled-tattoo.html
shamowfski

“Camero” one is chopped. They flipped the “a”.