The 10 Greatest Misspelled Tattoos

Filed Under: Special Events

Starting this week, every Thursday I'm going to show you one of the things I spend too much time looking up for no reason. I already have a really big backlog.

Up first: misspelled tattoos. The "CHITONW" tattoo got a bunch of press a few months ago--it was so outrageously bad that afterward a bunch of people got it on purpose in ironic solidarity. What else has been misspelled, permanently, on someone's body? Unfortunately, I bet a lot of people don't come forth. STET. Here are my favorites:

10. Good job.



9. "Hello, nice to meet you."




8. Wait, there's real text for this that I'm not making up--it's from someone in Beijing:

“Mine simply says FRUNK. The letters are so beautiful and flow so smoothly into each other. The word actually means old soul with young spirit in English. How cool is that? :-)"


7. "Pretty much it's my favorite song. It's like, when you feel pain it's because you're doing something that you're doing on purpose, and you're like, this is it."



6. "Fuck! Mother fucker."



5. "Siiiiiiiiiiick."



4. Aaaand this one isn't a misspelling, but



3. In the same vein...



2. "Hey you guys, look what I got. Check it out. Dave, you guys, John. Look at this shit!"



1. My favorite! OK clearly this one is written in Sharpie (right? please let it be Sharpie/not be Sharpie), but it's amazing. The kid is like four years old, also. Look at that Grim Reaper. This is the best tattoo in the world. The end!

Comments

Posted by 
no, edith, your awsome. also, tattoos based on photographs, pretty creepy.
Posted by 
The one I'm most concerned by is #3, not only because the kid on the right was made to look like that Chucky doll from those movies, but because, did the girl on the left receive a horrible birthmark in the middle of her forehead? Or is that something else?
Posted by 
worning, before reading the above post, please make sure bladder is empty.
Posted by 
These are great! I feel bad for laughing at #4, though...some guy now has a zombification of his deceased wife tattooed on him forever.
Posted by 
man, looking at #3 and #2 makes me extremely thankful that my portrait turned out amazingly well... but thats what actually searching for a good artist gets you... i spent two years looking for mine, obviously these people didn't have that kind of time, or didn't care... but honestly.. what makes me the most sad- is that they probably think they are amazing tattoos...
Posted by 
I'm just curious: do you think the tattoo artists pointed out the misspellings or just laughed and shook their heads at the idiocracy?
Posted by 
Frunk is now my new favorite word.
Posted by 
Howling with laughter. You are so Frunk!
Posted by 
Fantastic!
Posted by 
used to see this stunning stripper that had SURVIVER in huge letters on her arm
Posted by 
#5: Four misspellings, plus the nonsensical puzzle-piece motif make it beyond terrible.
Posted by 
MTV had a reality show about sororities. The season I saw took place in Buffalo, NY (I think). One of the rushes, Julie, was from Long Island and she needed a way to show the world what a wild and crazy girl she was...like get some ink that spelled out her (self-imposed) nickname, which was Jewelz.

So of course the tatoo comes out as: Jew Lez

It's perhaps my favorite piece of television ever. I think of it nearly every time I see a tatoo...so, you know....I think about it a lot.
Posted by 
it's "tattoo", not "tatoo", rebecca. don't visit an ink parlor any time soon, even if you have great tales about misspellings you've seen on TV.

Posted by 
tatoo you, robin
Posted by 
I guess its safe to say the faces don't come out too well in tattoos.
Posted by 
OK...I need someone to explain Frunk to me. Am I retarded? I can't figure out what that's supposed to be.
Posted by 
@Stop Smoking: It all depends on the artist. I've seen fantastic portraits that look exactly like photographs. Just stunning. And then there's #4.
Posted by 
the frunk looks like a bad photoshop.....
Posted by 
Stop trying to make Frunk happen. It's not going to happen!
Posted by 
Yeah, #1 looks like bad photoshop too. Those letters look typed on.
Posted by 
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=frunk

Frunk



To act very drunk when you have not consumed as much alcohol as you said, to act fake drunk.
Posted by 
The Frunk one is a photoshop from a joke website, it never happened. it's satirizing the popularity of Chinese tattoos in America, even though we don't know what the characters mean.
Posted by 
but have you seen this one...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/j4m35/tm_4.jpg
Posted by 
Frunks the new word of the week
Posted by 
Thought you'd like to see these before you get any more tatoos! LOL... be sure to read the comments below them.
Posted by 
These are the perfect foil to those hipster Chinese tattoos that probably actually mean “I cannot read my tattoo”.

http://www.pageslap.wordpress.com

your daily dose of internet awesome
Posted by 
its different, thanks for sharing.
Posted by 
Frunkly speaking,

Judging by the number of misspellings in these comments, I don't know what you're laughing about.

Sorry. You probably didn't understand that. Here:

Jugging bye the number of mispellings in these coments, I don't know what your laffing a bout.

"Your" for "you're" is my pet peeve and the number one misspelling I see on the net. "Your" is for "your pencil, your teacher, your dick."

"You're" is for "you are," as in, "You're an idiot."

Posted by 
Be sure. God will freakin' juge you for that one. Damn cool post, BTW. :D
Posted by 
it's not uncommon for the pre-tattoo release form to include a bit about the artist and shop not being responsible for any misspellings in text tattoos. if i were the artist faced with the dilemma of correcting it or letting it go, i'd honestly probably let it go...
Posted by 
Des misspelled "mispellings"! lol!
Posted by 
Make my frunk the deep frunk, I want my frunk uncut!
Posted by 
My goodness. Not only are they scarred for life but it's spelled incorrectly....OMG, those ugly likenesses of the people. I would have shot the tattoo artsist (oops..i mean artist)
Posted by 
I would just like to add a tattoo to this list. It was inked onto a young lady in a couple of my classes at university. She posted it on facebook, so I will add her caption as well:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b359/hiddenlies/amber.jpg

"This is My christmas present everyone! lol..aint it pretty? It says "Amber Rose" in Mandarin (Kudos to Angel)....and aint the art work great? Call up Craving Ink if you want great art like this! LOVE IT"
Posted by 
Frunk the systsem.
Posted by 
'shopped
Posted by 
i knew a guy who had "died braveley" on his arm.
Posted by 
I love how the very first comment here has a misspelling in it...
Posted by 
@brooklyn: was that pic supposed to be a joke? 0.o

(I don't get it.)
Posted by 
http://usedwigs.com/tattoos/

The Frunk is a fake, not sure how that slipped by. From a satire article spinning around the whole American kids with Asian characters deal.
Posted by 
Number #9 is misspelt on purpose. I frequent the BME website where that was taken from, and the person who got it wanted it spelt like that. Not sure why.

You should probably try and do a little research on these kind of things next time.
Posted by 
Tattoos are for queers.
Posted by 
Im a tattooist, and every time people come to me with text, no matter if it is in english or latin or spanish or french, whatever i always ask em if theyre sure that they spelt it right, i cant understand how somone made some of these mistakes its rediculous. o yer an portraits are the hardest thing to do, but those are done hilariously shit
Posted by 
Too Funny! On TMZ they showed a guy that got the State of California tattooed on his forearm, which I thought was kinda stupid, but then I saw that tattoo was reversed so the coast was in the East. What an idiot!! I think he might have a lawsuit on that one.
Posted by 
I knew someone who accidentally had "Minor Treat" on his arm instead of "Minor Threat"
Posted by 
Don't let Artists who specialize in sketching Skulls and Reapers of Death and Hell Spawn etch your Loved Ones onto your Body.
Posted by 
This reminds me of one of my favorite bash.org IRC quotes:

[hoLy] Ouch

[hoLy] my friend is giving me a tattoo with a bic pen and a knife right now

[hoLy] hurts so much but he almost finished

[hoLy] Hes finishing up the I in SATIN

[Ruff] ...

[hoLy] Yeah, so it'll say HAIL SATIN

[hoLy] This is gonnna be awesome

Posted by 
When I saw #4 I thought "oh, look, Wayland Flowers has a tattoo of Madame."
Posted by 
Whoever did those portrait tattoos suck pretty badly. There are a ton of other people around that are cheaper that you can probably still afford. Don't waste your money on shit like that. :)
Posted by 
Just to comment on the tattoo artist named Tricksta who quite eloquently states:

"i always ask em if theyre sure that they spelt it right,"

and then goes on to state:

"i cant understand how somone made some of these mistakes its rediculous. o yer an portraits "

(that last part i have no idea what Tricksta is trying to say.)

The main point is if THIS is a conscientious tattoo artist. Imagine the run-of-the-mill one.

Thanks for making the point of the article.

Posted by 
I assume that all of these were American, suggesting that their educashun sistem is faling badly ! And they can't draw for toffee...
Posted by 
This was hilarious! The one I couldn't get is the one on the writs, how could you not see that?
Posted by 
What about Chi-tonw. It's pronounced "Shit tan wa". I kid you not. Look here: http://tattoo.colonies.com/tattoo.colonies.com/blog/post/85164/
Posted by 
"frunk" is also a term used to describe the front trunk of midengine cars like the Porsche Boxster, Toyota MR-S, etc.

Also, that frunk tat is a terrible photoshop that appeared in a satirical web article about a fake trend of Japanese kids getting nonsense English words tattooed on them.
Posted by 
"Crunk" = Crazy + Drunk

so

"Frunk" = Fucking Retarded + Drunk
Posted by 
Hey, some of these aren't that bad. I got a tattoo that's been spelled "cant". It's really embarassing cos it's on my knuckles so everyone can see it all the time.
Posted by 
Hey check out my awesome brother in law's tattoo:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=72939315&albumID=321905&imageID=16281251

Should be on the list.
Posted by 
hey you marvelous blogger, congratulations on finding some original content

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3746581

oh wait

gdiaf
Posted by 
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22757185-2862,00.html

this was a funny tattoo mistake, that happened here in Australia.
Posted by 
The "Frunk" one looks like a photoshop because it IS a photoshop.

It's from a satirical article a couple of years back on Asian kids getting western words tattooed on them without knowing what they are.

I don't think this is the original article, but it's close (I seem to remember more photoshops in it):

http://www.linkinn.com/_Chinese_Youths_Crazy_for_English_Alphabet_Tattoos

Soo yah, it was just a spoof article to make fun of western kids who really have no idea what the asian symbols they're getting, actually mean.
Posted by 
thats not a grim reaper its a wraith.
Posted by 
Jennifer, I didn't know Ikea sold a bedroom ensemble for the skinny white redneck.
Posted by 
Jennifer, I didn't know Ikea sold a bedroom ensemble for the skinny white redneck.
Posted by 
Guess if you are stupid enough to get tattoo you might as well get a stupid person to do it.
Posted by 
what rednek said
Posted by 
My grandmother said it. My mother said it. And I say it: people who get tattoos are trash and rather stupid trash at that. No, it isn't cool; it's moronic to mutilate your body and call it "art."
Posted by 
Meh!
Posted by 
The retard in number 9 is my favorite.

He had to be able to clearly see the tattoo guy, right?

T - O - M - A "Uh - hold up dude...."
Posted by 
idiots. I have many tattoos, all of them I drew for the tattooist to copy. Being an artist, I make sure the tattooist is top quality. Obviously, some people don't care who or what someone etches into their skin. Maybe they don't realize that it's permanent?
Posted by 
FRUNK = FRUMPY PUNK

With no context, the words combine old and new indeed, and then congeal into a linguistic mess.
Posted by 
whitepeopleunite.blogspot.com
Posted by 
Reality,

Stereotyping people is trashy too. Welcome to the club.
Posted by 
Reality, his mom, and his grandmother are ignorant bigots, for sure.

(Or her)
Posted by 
what my name says, now go die
Posted by 
frunk is a fake piece its making fun of people who get Asian symbols without really knowing what they mean
Posted by 
Has no one heard of proofreading? That is why I will never put words on my body...I will stick with the pictures only thanks... :)
Posted by 
HAAAAA HAAAA HAA

SERIOUSLY # 3 is the WORST!
Posted by 
@William...I made sure I got my symbols read by everyone that I knew before getting them tattooed on me...and now I still ask...IT's just a really crazy thing to do to begin with!!
Posted by 
All those tattos are gay. Those people diserve to get them messed up
Posted by 
@Nhaste

You obviously missed the humor in his post. Great job. You have a smug sense of self satisfaction because you feel so superior, but you are clearly a pioneer in ignorance. Congratulations.
Posted by 
If and when you have some time, go over to http://www.zug.com/pranks/tattoo/ for zug's "chinese tattoo prank" 1 & 2. A guy who really, really hated tats of chinese characters convinced some pothead hers of "inner peace" really translated to "bean curd." So the website got the idea to make a webpage with downloadable tattoo stencils, everything, but all of them had completely off meanings - and the website took off like a shot. Which means there is probably now some kid who really does have "bean curd" on her arm.
Posted by 
hahahahahA
Posted by 
I still dont understand why people think their skin needs to be permanently 'decorated' with some ink or metal.

These are gonna look pretty sad in a few years.
Posted by 
yeah they will look bad in a few years, plus you would think the person doing the tattoo would check to make sure the spelling was correct, holy crap that would piss me off so much

Posted by 
C'mon for fuck sake! The artist of this shit is just as goddamn retarded as the recipients.

This is truly degrading on both ends. The people can't spell.
Posted by 
In 35 years of tattooing I've seen and even made a couple of spelling blunders, but these take a heaping helping of the proverbial Betty Crocker cake...However what blows my mind the most is they had the idiocy to put their copy write on that horrible portrait....I'm just frunkin' amazed.

p.s. Stig is a fag!!
Posted by 
maybe #9 is trying to say "Tom Arrow" instead if tomorrow.
Posted by 
gahahaha,

frunk?

whatthefuck is wrong with people?

Posted by 
They are all fuckwits........
Posted by 
The Frunk one looks photoshopped to me. Your/You're is a pretty common mistake. I wouldn't rank it up there with "awsome" or "delt" or "systsem." I think Tricksta spelled "spelt" wrong. I don't think "spelt" is a word. It is ultimately the responsibility of the client to verify spelling and meaning. Tattooers (usually) put a stencil on so the client can see how's it's going to look before they actually tattoo it, so if there's something wrong, then the client has time to see it and point it out. You can't assume the tattooer is a good speller or good at grammar. Lastly, those portraits are pretty bad. But again, the client should look at portfolios. If the artist doesn't have portraits in there, or if they are bad, then don't have the artist do the portrait. And as far as the California tattoo, no lawsuit would ever stand up in court. You know what a judge would say? "You're an idiot for getting a tattoo. Deal with it."
Posted by 
Has anyone seen this one?

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fail-owned-tattoo-fail.jpg

It's tradgic.
Posted by 
Those are Amsome!
Posted by 
Favorite bad tattoos (not misspellings, just tragic art):

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/Badkittym/npdc-gene-visions-2.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/Badkittym/npjy-my-dog-on-my-elbow.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/Badkittym/Portrait5_big.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w203/Badkittym/bear.jpg

Yup. It pays to spend a few years locating an artist who is actually good, as opposed to cheap, or related to you.
Posted by 
I resent #9. Sometimes I know.
Posted by 
"frunk" known to some as a trunk in the front of a car where a motor is usually placed, in cars such as porches, lambos, ferarri's, and even the Toyota Mr2 the motors are placed in the rear of the car there for leaving room in the front of the car for cargo space, like a trunk would give you but then the question arises what do you call this new found space at the front of the car? its a trunk but in the front, AH there u go its a frunk :P
Posted by 
#5 isn't really a misspelling. The tattoo is on the guy's shoulder, or deltoid muscle. Were I referring to your deltoid muscle, I very well might call it "your delt."
Posted by 
The guy who did my tatts, in Latin no less, made me check for spelling errors. We looked at it once and then a second time and then a third just to be safe. He kept numerous dictionaries handy. These guys were frunks.
Posted by 
what's wrong with number 7?
Posted by 
fucking idiots
Posted by 
Patch,

All the words in #7 are spelled correctly BUT they use the wrong "your"--it should be you're (as in you are alive).
Posted by 
Oh goodness!! The portrait tattoos are absolutely awful! I would be highly upset if that was inked permanently into my skin!
Posted by 
I met a guy once who had a picture of a striking cobra (snake) on his arm, and underneath the word "CORBA". I remarked that the word was spelled wrong and he said, "Oh wow! You're the first person who's ever noticed that!"
Posted by 
The #1 looks like a henna tattoo to me - it'll last a week or two.
Posted by 
BRILLIANT!

Man! Who did that INK!?!?!?!!? Amazing...
Posted by 
why do people insist on repeating the same stuff over and over again. we get that the frunk tattoo is fake
Posted by 
i dont get it. everything seems ok?
Posted by 
I think the frunk tattoo is fake.
Posted by 
Dude. The kid in number one is cearly older than four years old.

Fuckin' dipshit.
Posted by 
that one at the bottom looks like a henna tattoo, raised and shiny, yet not red...
Posted by 
in tattoo #7, proper grammar would be "you're" not "your"

your is possessive only, and alive is an adverb not a noun, you cannot have an "alive"

Lucky
Posted by 
Been posted before, but it deserves being posted again.

The frunk one is fake.

http://usedwigs.com/tattoos/
Posted by 
Apparently a scottish Partick Thistle football fan had 'Patrick Thistle' tattooed on his arm.
Posted by 
numbers 3 and 4 made me L O L XD
Posted by 
People with crappy portrait tattoos must get into a lot of fights. "What's with the zombies on your arm?" "Those are my kids." "You've got some ugly kids."
Posted by 
Not everyone who gets a tattoo is trash. There are certainly worthless people who do have tattoos, but the tattoos are really secondary to the fact that they are utterly intolerable to be around for unrelated reasons.

That said, old content is old, but still entertaining.
Posted by 
I always wondered if people in Asian countries got English words tattooed on themselves. This just made my day.
Posted by 
Photoshooooooooooooooooop
Posted by 
What the frunk! I got a new word to use.
Posted by 
What the frunk! I got a new word to use.
Posted by 
that was pretty fucking stupid
Posted by 
You fail so hard. trying to make fun of others, and yet, No. 3: 'in the same vein'.

Please tell me that's on purpose...
Posted by 
Bet they are all photo shopped, I saw them online last week, and they looked kinda different
Posted by 
Des didn't misspell misspellings. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/misspelling.

Sound it out mis-spell-ing.
Posted by 
Please let it be sharpie :o
Posted by 
I'm glad that my tattoo has no text.
Posted by 
I'm glad that my tattoo has no text.
Posted by 
It's forbidden in Isslam to have tattos.

I'm guessing this is why, especially number 4.
Posted by 
A Texas musician, Bob Schneider calls his music Frunk which means Fresh and Funky
Posted by 
These are funny/sad. Anyone not laughing/crying should just shut the fuck up, as all your idiot comments (you're so smart/stupid) are as retarded as the pics.
Posted by 
Number 8 is actually fake, it's from an article at some parody news site (like theonion or something), parodying US people who tattoo themselves with chinese letters (ofttimes not knowing what it actually says - or just believing whatever the tattoo artist told 'em). I'm sure you can still find that one somewhar.
Posted by 
Uh... "Awesome" is spelled correctly. That's a "W" not and "M"
Posted by 
@Rhac

Awesome Vs Awsome
Posted by 
Muppets
Posted by 
On #8: I went to school with this guy, his name is Tom Arrow, what the fuck are you all making fun of anyway?

jesus christ.....

t
Posted by 
This is my wife...this is my wife as a Zombie...
Posted by 
"Frunk" is on someone in Beijing. We can't laugh at this until people in America stop getting Kanji tattoos.
Posted by 
my cousin got a massive tattoo on his forearm saying Zaphria, a tribute to his daughter.

His daughter's name is Zaphira.

lmao
Posted by 
fuck you fukcers. your awsome. My awsome? or you mean YOU'RE AWSEOME? YOU ARE A STUPID FUCK
Posted by 
patricia you should be a tattoo artist
Posted by 
it´s great/sad to see something like that !! but i´m happy that my Inks are correct ! greetz from germany
Posted by 
http://fghjejrjtyghprp.com
Posted by 
http://fghjejrjtyghprp.com
Posted by 
http://fghjejrjtyghprp.com
Posted by 
FRUNKTASTIC!
Posted by 
FRUNKTASTIC!
Posted by 
FRUNKTASTIC!
Posted by 
Funny, and sad about the memorial tats.

I have to comment on the person who said tats are moronic ways of mutilation, I don't have any tats.. I think they are very artistic, and see nothing wrong with them. Many MANY cultures have practiced tattooing for centuries, it is art, and for them a rite of passage.

I for one want a tat, but i want to wait until i have completed some things in my life so that it means something to me.

If you don't like tats, don't look is what I say!
Posted by 
Nice tats. There was a guy in my local pub who wanted the word "MODS" tattooed on his knuckles but it turned out like "MOOS". Didn't have the same effect.
Posted by 
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