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
Ariana Grande got a new tattoo on the inside of her hand in Kanji. We know because she posted a photo of it, which she assured people was her real hand since it was so smooth and looked doll-like. Ariana thought it said “7 Rings” for her new (very derivative) single. People who can read Kanji quickly pointed out that it really says “shichirin,” which is the name for a little tabletop grill used in Japan. I love those tabletop grills! When I lived in Germany we would have raclette grill dinners and they were so much fun. Now I want a Japanese one, but I digress.
Anyway Ariana deleted the photo and she explained that this happened because the tattoo hurt so much that she decided to leave a few characters out in the middle of it, resulting in the gaffe. She deleted these tweets but PopAlarms screencapped them: [via Cosmopolitan]
Ariana Grande clarifies that she left out some letters off her tattoo because the pain was intolerable and says she’s a huge fan of tiny bbq grills which is one of the things her tattoo translates to! pic.twitter.com/SC1z4SSefW
— Pop Alarms 🚨 (@PopAlarms) January 30, 2019
That’s partially why you shouldn’t get tattoos with other languages, also because of appropriation issues of course. I’m not into tattoos anymore, I only have a couple tattoos from when I was in my late teens. I keep seeing Instagram ads for semi-permanent tattoos and I look through them and realize I don’t even want to commit to a week with one.
As for this mistake, Ariana should go all out with the tabletop barbecues. She should have a party with all her friends and a bunch of these little grills on the table. She needs to include that in her next video and use it as a theme for her tour. Oh and at Coachella, where she’s headlining. It would be a better strategy than mimicking 2 Chainz’s aesthetic and Soulja Boy’s beats.
Here’s an explanation from a Japanese speaker of how this happened:
I’m Japanese. Born and brought up in Japan. 七 means 7 and 輪 means a wheel or might be a ring, but when they are used together, it only means BBQ grill. And if you write it in 2 characters, it should be 七環 which means 7 rings
— 巻寿司@SF (@non_sgr) January 30, 2019
Hahahahahaha. Always hilarious to see these mistakes
Yes, FAIL!!! Is it wrong that I love this story so much????
If it is wrong I don’t want to be right.
True story: I studied Japanese in college and studied abroad there. Once a guy showed me a large tattoo of Japanese katakana letters that spread across his back and told me it was his name. It was not. It was just gibberish. He was, um, quite upset.
I also minored in Japanese in college, studied abroad, and am 25% Japanese. I wanted a tattoo while I was over there. (Ugh, it was the early 00s, I’m sorry). I was 99.99% sure my Kanji tattoo said what I thought it said, and I STILL brought a native speaker friend along to the shop just to make sure. Find some Asians in your life, Ariana!
STARTUPSPOUSE…Omg I burst out laughing reading that. Just how you phrased it. That poor man. I’d be upset too. That is next level trolling by the tattoo artist and so wrong.
A part of me feels bad for laughing but yeah…I’m laughing. About 20 years ago one of my friends got a Chinese symbol tattooed on her stomach (I don’t remember what it was supposed to say, it might have been her name) and to this day I wonder if she ever had it checked out by someone who actually reads the language.
Buyer beware, hahahaha.
That’s always my thought! Like do you really not have any friends that are friend’s with someone that speaks the language? A co-worker? Heck post the drawing of the tattoo you’re going to get on an internet forum if you have to.
There used to be a website of bad Chinese and Japanese tattoos, where people took pictures of tattoos and either translated the symbols to what they really said or explained that it meant nothing. I wonder if that website still exists.
Am I alone in thinking she’s oddly immature and acts very stupid? Nothing to do with the tattoo, but she’s just messy AF. I don’t understand why she doesn’t have anybody in her life who can say “you should chill” but it seems like her life is lacking that.
I feel like she skated away from that Pete Davidson thing a little too squeaky clean. She is obviously not responsible for anyone else’s mental health but maybe don’t play house with a guy who is open about his mental health struggles only to turn around and not only say “oops just kidding!” but actually write multiple songs about that shit like it’s a big joke at his expense. She got engaged and acted like she was deeply in love, called this man her soul mate on the world’s stage, and it’s fine to break it off… but writing an album about the time you almost got married? Getting tattoos about it? I just don’t see how we can say that mental health is an issue our entire world needs to step up and deal with better while we applaud dumb ass behavior from people like this irresponsible idiot.
Please. People say shitty, violating garbage about her and countless other female celebrities of all ages, regardless of what they’re going through mentally or physically and don’t let them use their struggles as a reason for why online commenters or Piers Morgan-types should think before they speak. People don’t care about the toll those things take on female mental health and don’t want to even hear it. But then when a male celebrity has mental health issues, suddenly his girlfriend is an evil idiot irresponsible bitch just for mentioning his name in a song that isn’t even disrespectful? #MalePrivilegeisWhen
I don’t think either sex gets a pass on living life on social media and airing dirty laundry. And yes, I think she’s immature.
Totally agree Otaku fairy. I still see people blaming Ari for Mac Milller’s death. FFS, she just posted a picture of him on his birthday on Instagram and it’s clear that she wrote “Imagine” about their relationship. Anyone can see how much she loved/loves him. Also, and this may make me kind of unpopular on this site, but I feel like some of the cultural appropriation and blackfishing claims hurled at Ari are misogynistic in nature. Why is it that white hip-hop artists like G Easy, Post Malone, and–yes–even Mac Miller can appropriate hip-hop culture in their music without any ramifications, yet when Ariana–someone who has had substantial RnB influences in her music since the genesis of her career, also someone who portrayed Jesus as a black woman in her VMA performance of “God is a Woman” for goodness sake–releases a track like 7 Rings, she gets flayed alive for appropriating hip-hop culture? It just feels a little wrong to me.
@Grant: I don’t think the appropriation criticism is invalid though (most of it) or about misogyny. It seems like she took some of those lyrics from Princess Nokia’s song about black women’s experiences with hair even if her intentions weren’t bad. Plus she uses AAVE- which is hard to avoid and I’m not saying every millennial or gen X person who does it needs to be cancelled. But white privilege enables her to use it without getting treated the way Cardi B and other black celebrities (and non-celebrities) get treated for it. It’s a tough but necessary conversation. The only part of the criticism that really seemed off was the part about tanning.
@Otaku fairy–apologies, I didn’t mean to draw you in to the point that I was making. I should have been more clear in that I agreed with you re: Ariana skating by after the Pete Davidson mess. I hear what you’re saying but it’s very hard for me to believe that she actually ripped off Princess Nokia. The line in question has been compared to Nokia’s “It’s mine/I bought it/It’s mine/I bought it” from her song “Mine” and I believe that savvy listeners have actually compared Nokia’s “Mine” track to another song, effectively accusing Nokia of plagiarizing. The issue of cultural appropriation is another one entirely, but I can’t help but wonder why those aforementioned white, male rappers are not held to the same level of scrutiny that female musicians are. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blog post or think piece devoted to the litany of ways that Post Malone for example has appropriated hip-hop culture. I’m intrigued as to why that is.
“…she just posted a picture of him on his birthday on Instagram and it’s clear that she wrote “Imagine” about their relationship. Anyone can see how much she loved/loves him.”
Are you serious? That shows (on Instagram?!) how much she loves “him” (Miller or Davidson??) ?
LOve shows if you stand through good and bad times…
She’s got her own mental health issues.
You are not alone.
Thankyou next is very insensitive. The title, the way she rubs it in that everything is cool with her now that she is single, her faux gratitude. It was just a bit too soon, IMO… It wasn’t genuine, at all.
I don’t think she is the person she is trying to portray.
And this tattoo thing is just lame.
Yes. She seems ignorant, immature, and extremely unintelligent. I got on board as a fan of her for about a month when Sweetener came out, and then was immediately reminded why I didn’t like her. Blegh
I personally think this is karma for people who get tattoos in languages they dont speak or understand simply because they like the way it looks
+1
Agreed. Bad judgment.
Left out some stuff because it hurt? Um….no I don’t believe her. She picked something she didn’t understand and now has a BBQ tattoo.
Yep! Never get tattoos in a language you don’t speak/read/write (and even when you speak it, avoiding words/sentences is smart if you don’t know the artist well, spelling mistakes do happen!)
Claiming it hurt so she went for BBQ instead of 7rings is the stupidest fake excuse she could have gone for. If it hurts that much, do it in multiple takes or stop before and go for a picture to cover it up, but you won’t just say “Ooh! F& that, let’s write BBQ”.
This, exactly. I don’t know which is more insulting, not understanding what it means and thinking cool symbols on my hand, or you know it won’t mean what you want it to mean, but it hurts so much, so you think, whatever, same thing? The fact that she posted it with no explanation of the missing characters in the beginning means she though it was correct. I look forward to her N RTS (no regrets) tattoo. Eyeroll.
Lol it was such a stupid attempt to save face
Exactly! Another made up excuse from the person who licked doughnuts to make a statement against child obesity in the US.
Mmm. Japanese BBQ. So good.
This is the thing about social media. When are you ever on break from the public? There’s a bit of a -running on fumes- vibe to Ariana now and if possible, her people should schedule a break for her. Or find something different for her to do so she can change things up a bit. Maybe an acting gig.
It wouldn’t be surprising at all if within the next couple of years she did have some kind of breakdown tbh.
She seems to me like someone who very much needs to prove how in control she is by rising to the occasion or having a witty comeback and IDK if she gets that she can stop, take a break and take care of her own emotional health instead of having to be in command of everything. And she’s had to deal with some seriously traumatic things in the past few years. I hope she has good people around her.
I’m ashamed to say that I love that 7 Rings song. It makes my bussy pawp. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I’ll see myself out.
Don’t be ashamed, that song slaps. Pawp that bussy, hunty
When she was with Pete, he mentioned that she was able to get a pig in a matter of hours. Surely she has the resources to get a good translator before getting inked, no?
(Maybe this is wrong of me, but I don’t think getting a tattoo in another language is cultural appropriation. To me, it’s admiring the beauty of another language — if done correctly).
I love her voice and some of songs are really good. I wish her the best because she has talent and potential. However, she has been a mess lately. I hope someone is trying to speak with her or get her some help.
As for this lol. I laughed and it is so very typical of people who like some aspects of Asian culture but can’t be bother to really learn learn it. I know she is quite popular in Japan when her last album came out but this was silly. She is also selling sweatshirts with ‘Arigatou’ ありがとう written in Japanese too. I also don’t believe she ‘intentionally’ left off parts of the hiragana and the Kanji ~ she was too stupid to check or talk to a person with good to fluent Japanese abilities. To have
七輪 instead of 七つの指輪 lol or at least
七指輪 would have also been better
Ah, she’ll have it lasered off in no time – oops, I mean, it will PEEL off in no time.
PEEL, because it’s not a giant fail, guys!
This made me laugh so hard. And these days, I need to laugh more.
I’ve never seen anything I’d want tattooed on my body…but a Japanese grill just might be the thing. Yum.
There is nothing love more than a tattoo fail.
not like it’s permanent – palm tattoos fade quick
Her reply to this whole thing was hilarious. She ended up saying something about how the tattoo hurt like crazy, but if she scratches at it she can end up having it re-done. Then she commented about loving tiny BBQs, which I thought as cute af.
I bet she’s cracking up about it, to be honest. She seems really good about being able to laugh at herself.
There’s a great blog about this kind of tattoo confusion: http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com
Can Someone explain to me why a tattoo in another language is cultural appropriation?