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You don't have to spend too much time walking the streets in Japan or browsing clothing stores to spot questionable or accidentally funny use of English on products that has come to be known as "Engrish", as seen with the black man super bikini, but perhaps the mirror side of this is the horror stories you hear of people who have decided to get a kanji tattoo--only to find out it doesn't mean exactly what they thought it did. Pop star Ariana Grande seems to have a horror story of her own to tell now after deciding to get a kanji tattoo to commemorate her single "7 Rings".
Unfortunately the tattoo she got doesn't really do that.
Grande shared the photo of her recently done tattoo, which reads 七輪 (shichirin). While the original post has been deleted, her official Japanese Twitter page shows it.
While she intended the tattoo to read as "7 Rings" in Japanese, fans with knowledge of Japanese were quick to pick up on the mistake and point out the entirely different meaning.
The kanji 七 means as “seven,” while 輪 means “hoop,” “circle,” “wheel,” or “ring.” However, when 七 and 輪 are combined, the kanji take on a totally different meaning. 七輪 (shichirin) is a small charcoal grill used in Japan for BBQ. Something like this:
In the video for "7 Rings", the title and phrase are correctly translated and written as “七つの指輪” (nanatsu no yubiwa).
So what gives? Grande herself explained that she left out the "つの指" portion in between that represents a correct translation, saying "“indeed, i left out “つの指” which should have gone in between. it hurt like f*** 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 the whole thing next time.”
Given that Grande has studied Japanese, navigate the language a bit, and clearly has Japanese speaking staff to aide her, it's an unfortunate blunder--but perhaps another lasting reminder that it's always best to be 100% sure what your ink says.