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Ariana Grande confuses fans with tattoo fail
Ariana Grande is the latest celebrity to add to her growing tattoo collection but the singer has sparked a fan debate over what the Japanese ink translates to.
The 25-year-old had the kanji characters ‘七輪’ tattooed on her hand in tribute to her latest single, ‘7 Rings’.
But one eagle-eyed fan was quick to point out that although the two characters do mean ‘seven’ and ‘rings’ individually, when placed together they actually translate to ‘schichirin’ – which is a small charcoal grill.
Ariana Grande’s new tattoo “七輪” means Japanese style bbq grill, not 7 rings. 😭 If you want to know about 七輪, just google “SHICHIRIN” pic.twitter.com/HuQM2EwI62
— *amo* (@hey__amo) January 30, 2019
However, another Twitter user swiftly argued that her ink does in fact mean ‘seven rings’ in Chinese (a language which also uses kanji characters).
Bringing an end to the debate, Grande later revealed that she had made an error in the tattoo studio.
i'm more surprised by how many people don't understand that japanese and chinese are different languages even if they share kanji characters. that's like saying german and english are no big difference because they share the alphabet omg
— 雨曦 ｡◕‿◕｡ (@yuxisushi) January 30, 2019
In now-deleted tweets, the singer explained that she shortened the original tattoo (by cutting the characters ‘つの指’ due to the pain.
“Indeed, I left out ‘つの指’ which should have gone in between,” she wrote on the social media platform. “It hurt like f**k and still looks tight.”
“I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao but this spot also peels a ton and won’t last,” she continued. “So if I miss it enough, I’ll suffer through the whole thing next time.”
Sure enough, the singer’s latest ink entertained fans nevertheless with a large number taking to Twitter to joke about the tattoo.
ariana stans: ariana has a deep appreciation for the japanese language and culture and has been studying it for years
ariana: gets a tattoo that says bbq instead of 7 rings— morgi 22 (@renminluvr) January 30, 2019
Japanese style bbq grill is definitely something I would dedicate a part of my body to for the rest of my life.
— Noah T. Gray (@NoahTGray0) January 30, 2019
I want a tattoo that says bbq grill now
— I need a better username cause anime was a mistake (@LightTheWeeb) January 30, 2019
She’s rich she can just buy another hand
— ✩✩ (@lucasaholic) January 30, 2019
But her latest ink wasn’t short of controversy either with some fans criticising the singer for appropriating Japanese culture:
this is why we should stop using culture/language as an aesthetic lol
— chittaphon ❄️ (@ramennshaw) January 30, 2019
The singer reportedly has over 24 tattoos including a small bee behind her ear in tribute to the 2017 Manchester Arena attack and her favourite Pokémon character, Eevee, inked on her upper arm.
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