Ariana Grande’s Latest Tattoo Is Supposed To Say ‘Seven Rings’ In Japanese… But It Does Not

Ariana Grande has been catching a bit of flack recently for dipping into cultures that aren’t her own, and this… this won’t help.

The singer has added to her ever-growing collection of tattoos with a new inking on the palm of her hand that celebrates her latest single, 7 Rings.

She got the name of the song tattooed in Japanese – and while the characters do indeed stand for ‘seven’ and ‘hoop’/’circle’/’ring’, when put together the meaning is different.

According to Kotaku, what Ari has instead is the Japanese symbol for ‘small charcoal grill’, or ‘shichirin’:

【Instagramより】
アリアナがまた日本語のタトゥーを追加！今度はなんと漢字で「七輪」😳
「みんなこれは私の手じゃないって思っているみたいだけど、本当に私の手よ🥺」とコメントしています。
「七つの指輪」を略して「七輪」かな🤔💭とても気に入っているよう💍#アリアナ pic.twitter.com/wR55jgu7FU

— アリアナ・グランデ JP公式 (@ariana_japan) January 30, 2019

https://twitter.com/aoi80550747/status/1090463913815138304

The thing is, Ariana has an official Japanese Twitter account (run by people she surely could have asked to proofread for her), and the video for 7 Rings features the correct translation. Yeesh.

And it seems she knew there was a mistake there – in a now deleted reply to a fan, Ariana said that she left out a third character that would have made the phrase correct because the tattoo “hurt like f**k”:

…Still looks tight. I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao. But this spot also peels a ton and won’t last so if I miss it enough, I’ll suffer thru the whole thing next time.

She’s right that hand tattoos typically fade faster than inkings in other areas, but still, she’s getting dragged for getting a tattoo in a language she doesn’t speak (and caring more about the ‘aesthetic’ than the actual words):

https://twitter.com/arikvash/status/1090506663428124674

https://twitter.com/rococcoletariat/status/1090493320852373506

As always people, think before you ink. (And don’t use Google Translate for tattoos.)

• Ariana Grande