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Published 17:12 04 Feb 2019 GMT
As you may have heard by now, Ariana Grande got a much-discussed new tattoo recently. No, not the Pete Davidson one. No, not the Pokemon one, either. We're talking about the "7 Rings" tattoo, or - to use its accurate translation from the Japanese - the "Small Charcoal Grill" tattoo.
Yup, you read that correctly: Grande, a woman so wealthy she literally wrote a song about it, apparently couldn't afford a reliable spellcheck on her new ink, and so ended up getting what amounted to "barbecue" tattooed on her hand.
Well, for a short while anyway.
After some backlash, the singer added an extra character and a heart to the piece, so now it says "Japanese BBQ finger ♡".
Unsurprisingly, this caused yet more hilarity on social media, with some saying the 25-year-old singer deserves the embarrassment for culturally appropriating the kanji language without any respect for Japanese speakers.
By this point, though, Grande had had enough. So, when TMZ tweeted, "Ariana Grande Gets Million Dollar Offer to Remove Japanese BBQ Grill Tattoo," the singer responded with: "i’ll give y’all a million to get off my nuts".
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She then tweeted (and subsequently deleted), "I also went back and got it fixed with the help of my tutor to be more accurate. I can't read or write kanji obviously. what do you want me to do? it was done out of love and appreciation. what do you want me to say?
"u kno how many people make this mistake and DON'T care just cause they like how it looks? bruh ... i care soooo much. what would you like me to do or say? forreal [sic]."
In another (also deleted) tweet, Grande said that she had taken down the Japanese-branded merchandise from her online store in response to the backlash:
"There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation. My japanese fans were always excited when i wrote in japanese or wore japanese sayings on my clothing. however, all of the merch with japanese on it was taken down from my site not that anyone cared to notice."
Still, some critics of the star jumped on her tweet to TMZ to tell her that she wasn't handling the situation very well.
"i love u but... this was not the way to go about it," one person wrote. "just apologize and drop the white woman victimhood and own up to it. look thru others’ pov. this says a lot abt how u view the culture as a whole. saying 'get off my nuts' and making excuses shows ur true colors. do better [sic]."
"Its almost like we're laughing at you for using Japanese/japan as an aesthetic and it firing back on you," said another.
Meanwhile, the usual Ari stans were out in full force offering to sacrifice their lives for the thank u, next singer.
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Soooo, essentially, we're right back where we started: Grande says she did nothing wrong, her fans backed her up, and her critics called her out. Oh, and she still has "Japanese BBQ finger ♡" tattooed on their palm, which will never - I repeat, never - stop being hilarious.
Published 09:09 07 Feb 2019 GMT
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“This is truly sad. I hope she doesn’t end up hating Japan.”
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“What the heck is cultural appropriation?”
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“What, using the Japanese language on merch is wrong?”
4.
“Looking at this from the point of view of a Japanese person is uncomfortable because I’d say that the majority of Japanese musicians’ merch is in English.”
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“If this is cultural appropriation, then I guess t-shirts in Japan with English are no good.”
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“Whatever. Japanese people have English language tattoos.”
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"I think she should get a kanji tattoo after she finished her Japanese lessons."
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"It is actually appropriation."
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"Japanese people aren’t good at English, but there’s English all over the place in Japan."
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"It’s people in America who are criticizing her."
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“Just like Ariana said, Japanese people are happy [with her using Japanese]. I’m happy that Ariana understands that.”
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"This is causing such an uproar? She loves Japan and Japanese people are not making a big deal about this."
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“She asked her Japanese teacher and then got the tattoo. I don’t blame Ariana.”
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"What’s cultural appropriation? That’s not something Japanese people would say."
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"This news is very disappointing... Ariana was studying Japanese and she was such a
Japanophile that she tweeted to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in Japanese."
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"Japanese people are used to foreigners making kanji mistakes."
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"She should’ve left her tattoo as ‘small charcoal grill.’"
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"Blame Google Translate!"
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"So, are Japanese t-shirts with strange English cultural appropriation?"
20.
"This does not bother Japanese people... We’re just happy if people learn more about Japanese culture. But, ‘small charcoal grill’ is odd and that needs to be fixed."
So there you have it! It seems as though Japan isn't angry with Ariana, and is ready to forgive her over the tattoo mishap. Maybe people in the west should do the same?
Published 13:11 31 Jan 2019 GMT
Is Ariana Grande's new hit song called '7 Rings' or 'Small Charcoal Grill'? That was the hilarious question on everyone's mind yesterday when it emerged the singer had made a huge mistake with her new tattoo.
While we're happy to announce that Ari no longer has 'Small Charcoal Grill' marked on her palm forever (and a little sad to say goodbye), we regret to inform you that when she tried to fix it, it didn't quite work out. In fact, it made it so much worse.
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After being mocked mercilessly on the internet for mixing up the Japanese symbols on her first inking, the 25-year-old laughed off the drama, turning to social media to confess she'd made quite the blunder.
"Indeed, I left out ‘つの指’ which should have gone in between. It hurt like f**k n still looks tight. I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao," she tweeted. "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 added: "Pls leave me and my tambourine grill alone. thank u." [sic]
However, it appears the One More Time songstress' nonchalance didn't last long. Soon enough, she shared her plans for her new and improved tattoo on social media, uploading screenshots of her communications with her "tutor", as well as her design.
But while the alteration was obviously incredibly carefully thought-out, it wasn't good enough. Ariana's tattoo allegedly now reads: "Japanese BBQ finger ♡".
So, how did this happen? Well, in the message, the singer's Japanese tutor told her to add the character for "finger" (指) in between and above the original tattoo.
What happened instead is that she tattooed the new symbol directly underneath the character for seven (七). When Japanese is read vertically from top to bottom, it’s read right to left, meaning it translates to something like 'Japanese BBQ finger ♡'. Doh!
Uploading the new marking to Instagram, Ariana captioned the photo: "slightly better. thanks to my tutor for helping me fix ... rip tiny charcoal grill. miss u man. i actually really liked u. [sic]"
While thousands of people will find the new mistake pretty darn amusing, many others have criticised the thank u, next star for using a language she doesn't understand for aesthetic purposes.
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"Ariana’s tattoo... 2012 Tumblr girl getting a kanji tattoo for aesthetics without actually caring about Japanese culture/people teas [sic]," wrote one Twitter user.
I think we can all agree that there is a moral to Ariana's story: do not get a tattoo in a language that you don't understand - it will never work out well.
Published 11:46 30 Jan 2019 GMT
When it comes to selecting a tattoo, you need to do your homework. The last thing you want is to be one of those people who goes into an inking parlour, doesn't request the right thing, and ends up with the poo emoji on your ankle for the rest of your natural life.
If you're going to get a marking that lasts forever, you need to think of something somewhat meaningful, slightly tasteful, and definitely spelled properly. After all, whatever you choose is going to be etched onto your bare skin, so you might as well pick something cool in the first place.
Ultimately, what you choose to have tattooed on yourself is up to you, and nobody can stop you from doing what you like. But the nature of personal autonomy means that not everyone is careful when it comes to body art. Indeed, over the years, we've seen some pretty cringe-worthy tattoos, and it seems like even celebrities aren't immune to screwing up from time-to-time.
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This week, artist Kane Navasard, shared a picture of a tattoo he'd inked for Ariana Grande, accompanied by the caption: "If you didn’t know, @arianagrande is a G. [sic]"
The thank u, next singer's new tattoo is a pair of Japanese characters, which according to Navasard translates as "seven rings" - a reference to her newest track. At first glance, the tattoo appeared to be pretty tasteful. That was, until Japanese-fluent followers noticed that the tat didn't actually say "seven rings."
There appeared to be a mistake with the ink, and it now apparently translates as something else entirely. You see, the kanji character '七' means 'seven' while' 輪' can mean 'hoop,' 'circle,' 'ring,' or 'wheel.'
However, when put together the meaning is completely different! In actual fact, '七輪' (shichirin) directly translates as "small charcoal grill" and not "seven rings."
Predictably, when the public learned this they wasted no time in mocking Grande's screw-up.
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However, while followers were making a fuss about the bizarre markings, Grande took to social media to state that she knew the tattoo was misspelt, but that getting the tattoo done had been too painful for her to finish, and she was happy with the markings regardless.
Ariana explained: "Indeed, I left out "つの指" which should have gone in between. It hurt like f*ck n 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 [sic] the whole thing next time."
Published 15:13 22 Jan 2019 GMT
These days, it seems like Ariana Grande is never out of the news. In the last week alone, she's made headlines for her brand new Pokemon tattoo, for the tribute she posted to her late ex, Mac Miller, and, most recently, for her new song, 7 Rings.
A riff on the Sound of Music classic, 7 Rings is apparently inspired by a true story. As Grande explained recently, the lyrics refer to a time she got wasted and decided to treat herself and six friends to engagement rings from Tiffany's (because why not, I guess). This is referenced in the lines: "Wearin' a ring but ain't gon' be no Mrs./Buy matching diamonds for six of my b*tches/I'd rather spoil all my friends with my riches/Think retail therapy my new addiction".
"You know how when you’re waiting at Tiffany’s they give you lots of champagne?” she asked Billboard. "They got us very tipsy, so we bought seven engagement rings, and when I got back to the studio I gave everybody a friendship ring."
But aside from making everyone else feel poor AF, the song has also caused a bit of controversy thanks to one of its other lyrics.
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The offending lines in question are, "You like my hair?/Gee, thanks! Just bought it" which, at first, don't seem offensive in the slightest.
However, when one person on Instagram (username @aminatou) associated "buying" hair with buying a weave - something that is associated with black culture - they posted a (possibly tongue-in-cheek) statement saying the song would "solve racism".
Grande reposted the statement, apparently thinking that it was complimentary. Upon receiving some negative criticism, though, she took it back down, urging theshaderoom to share the screenshot to their account with a statement saying she is "missing the point of the backlash".
Ariana then responded to this with an apology, saying:
"hi hi. i think [@aminatou's] intention was to be like... yay a white person disassociating the negative stariotype that is paired with the word 'weave'... however i'm so sorry if my response was out of pocket or if it came across the wrong way. thanks for opening the conversation and like... to everyone for talking to me about it. it's never my intention to offend anybody [sic]."
A lot of people think that the backlash was an overreaction anyway.
"That line about her hair could just as easily be about getting hair extensions, or dying it a fun color," said one person. "People CHOSE to hear it in the most offensive way possible."
"Ariana buys her hair and she has all rights to sing about it," added another. "Brown and black women aren't the only ones wearing and purchasing hair. Period."
Regardless of the mild controversy, 7 Rings is well on its way to stealing the number one spot, and has already smashed a Spotify record for having the most plays on the day of its release. All in all then, it doesn't seem like Ari has much to worry about.
Published 15:42 18 Mar 2019 GMT
What is it with celebrities and questionable tattoos?
You've got Miley Cyrus and her NSFW ink, Pete Davidson and his massive unicorn piece, and, of course, Ben Affleck and whatever the hell this monstrosity is. At this point, it seems almost as if the famous folk of Hollywood have some sort of crap tat club that they're not telling the rest of us about.
And, if that is the case, Ariana Grande has almost certainly secured her membership by now.
With more than 20 tattoos spread out across her legs, neck, chest, arms, and hands, the 25-year-old singer has quite the collection of artwork on her body... and she's just added one more to the gallery.
Posting on Instagram this weekend, Ari revealed a new piece across her ribs. "not a cover up just evolvin [sic]", she wrote alongside the image, which shows some leaves growing horizontally and encompassing the word "always" - a tattoo that was done in Pete Davidson's handwriting.
The thank u, next singer says that the work was done at 3am after tour rehearsals.
The work was also shared by the artist, Mira Mariah, who has tattooed Ari a number of times before. "Middle of the night leaves on the queen," she wrote. "I love you thank you this is all! So! Exciting! Happy tour."
Though she may not have covered up this particular Davidson tribute, she has erased basically every other trace of him on her body.
While they were together, Grande got a matching "reborn" hand tat with the SNL comedian, inked his late father's NYPD badge number on her foot, and got "Pete" written across her finger. Now, in their place, she has an olive branch, the name of her dog, and a black heart.
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Despite her many fixes and coverups this year, none of these examples quite match up to the disaster that is her "Japanese BBQ finger ♡" tat.
Grande infamously went viral a couple of months ago for getting some ink which she believed said "7 Rings", a reference to her hit song. However, it turns out that her kanji wasn't quite up to scratch, and her efforts to fix it only made matters worse.
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Perhaps she'll work on "evolving" that tattoo next.
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