50 People Who Wanted A Cool Tattoo But Ended Up With A Permanent Mistake
Interview With ExpertGetting a tattoo can be exciting, especially if it's your first one. Yet for some people, it can also be a source of regret. In fact, 24% of Americans say they have a tattoo that they now regret getting. Sometimes, those regrettable tattoos can be tragic. Other times, they're plain hilarious.
This Instagram page shares the latter, bringing you the best of the worst tattoos. The self-proclaimed "original failed tattoo page" is all about the times people regretted getting inked or got a badly done tattoo and didn't even know it until others pointed it out.
To know more about bad tattoos and how one can get rid of them, Bored Panda reached out to Lacey Cormier, a medical laser technician and tattoo artist. She kindly agreed to tell us more about the most common reasons why people get their tattoos removed and what the removal process is like. Read our conversation with Lacey below!
More info: Lacey Cormier | Lacey Tattoos | Ethereal Tattoos
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There are a lot of things to consider when getting a tattoo. The design, the placement, the style, the artist – it's not an easy decision for most people. But some tattoos can be, like Bob Ross would say, happy little accidents: you get them at 2 a.m. during a trip with your friends and later have to live with the consequences.
According to one survey, people most often get tribal tattoos, hearts, roses, stars, crosses, and skulls. The size matters too: 63% of the tattooed people the pollers surveyed said they regret getting a tattoo smaller than the palm of their hand.
The medical laser technician and tattoo artist with whom we got in touch, Lacey Cormier, has been tattooing people for many years, and recently also got into tattoo removal. You might think that removing tattoos is unethical for a tattoo artist, but, on the contrary – she's familiar with the ins and outs of tattoos better than other removal technicians.
Lacey says that most of the ink she removes are impulse tattoos. "Tattoos when away on vacation and if someone passes away," she adds. "I have removed quite a few memorial tattoos. These tattoos are often not well planned out and impede on potentially larger tattoos in the future on that body part."
Idk if I'm more take aback by the gnarly tattoo or the lack of a crack
At least he can grow his hair and cover it if he changes his mind, for a few years at least
It's Jason Voorhees! Imagine him being in a pool and him jumping out with his back toward you?
All he has to do is grow his hair back out and no one will ever know.
Not all tattoos are made equal: some can be far harder to remove than others. "There are lots of factors that play into a successful removal," Lacey admits. The most obvious criterion is the color, of course. Black and grey tattoos will probably be easier to remove than colorful ones.
The amount of time this would take only to turn out so terrible is sad.
But what some people might not know is that the location of the tattoo also plays a big part in whether it'll be hard to remove. And it's not about how even the surface of the body part is. "Tattoos closer to your heart will remove faster because of the blood circulation," Lacey explains.
She goes into more detail about the technical side of the removal process. "The laser breaks the ink into microscopic granules and your white blood cells then carry the ink away. So, where there's more blood circulation, the quicker the white blood cells will take the particles away compared to an arm or leg tattoo," the tattoo removal technician explains.
When people decide they no longer want their tattoos, removal is not the only way to go. Many talented artists can cover up an old, unwanted tattoo and create something stunning. Lacey says it depends on the person and what result they're looking for. Those who want a blank slate usually go for removal, and tattoo lovers might choose to cover them up.
day 42 and nobody has noticed that Spiderman is really me Slenderman
"I do recommend people invest in [themselves], whether that is complete removal of their tattoo or to have a few sessions to lighten the tattoo to make it easier to cover with another," Lacey says. "Tattoos and tattoo removal are expensive but I wouldn't cheap out on it. This is your body and we only get one, so invest in what makes sense for you."
Lacey also emphasizes that tattoo removal requires patience. "The removal of a tattoo take can take months or even years to achieve the desired result," she says. "You need to allow the skin to fully heal in between laser sessions and or getting tattooed over the old tattoo. Unfortunately, there is no fast track or shortcuts when it comes to removing your unwanted tattoos."
there is an obvious reason that it looks like the baby works in a coal mine its because she is a minor
In the end, who's to decide whether a tattoo is a fail or not? If the owner likes it, then that's that! In a previous interview for Bored Panda, the editor of Things & Ink magazine Alice Snape said that the only kind of failed tattoos should be spelling mistakes. "Surely, a tattoo can only really be a fail if the person who has the tattoo on their skin hates it," she told us. But other than that, it's really a matter of preference.
Good tattoos, bad tattoos – beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. So, Pandas, you decide: how many real tattoo fails did you see in this list? Upvote the best of the worst to the top and let us know in the comments which ones stuck in your mind. And, if you have a story about an unfortunate tattoo yourself, share it with us in the comments!
I feel as though this article is published several times a year on this website.
Did the artists not let folks look at the tat first? Mine draws it out, gets my approval. Transfers it to my skin, gets my approval. Makes me look in the mirror, gets my approval.
Top of the list for fails is Napoleon's mate, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who got a tattoo of "Death to Kings" during the French Revolution. He was later made King of Sweden and Norway. Fortunately for him, his position allowed him to ban anyone seeing his naked torso. These muppets won't be so lucky.
Well, some "artists" should reconsider the things they do for money. Sometimes customers needs to be protected against themselves. "Otherwise someone else will do the tattoo" isn't a validation..
Clearly these are idiots who bought tattoo guns online a day clearly have absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever. This is why I pay good money to a professional
Load More Replies...Has anyone ever gotten a portrait tattoo that wasn't a horrible abomination?
There are some tattoo artists who doing amazing portraits. But you have to review their prior work and be willing to pay.
Load More Replies...I guess none of them asked to see the tattooist's portfolio beforehand.
Great. Bored Panda just gave a notification saying "Woopee! Your comment on [this article] has got its first upvote!" (This was the day after I had sent the comment, btw). I was super excited to see what comment it was, and guess what? BP decided to be funny and shorten the article to 50 (based on the most upvotes) and I'll never get to see my comment again, as I uploaded it on the 105 version! Damn it!!!!
I feel as though this article is published several times a year on this website.
Did the artists not let folks look at the tat first? Mine draws it out, gets my approval. Transfers it to my skin, gets my approval. Makes me look in the mirror, gets my approval.
Top of the list for fails is Napoleon's mate, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who got a tattoo of "Death to Kings" during the French Revolution. He was later made King of Sweden and Norway. Fortunately for him, his position allowed him to ban anyone seeing his naked torso. These muppets won't be so lucky.
Well, some "artists" should reconsider the things they do for money. Sometimes customers needs to be protected against themselves. "Otherwise someone else will do the tattoo" isn't a validation..
Clearly these are idiots who bought tattoo guns online a day clearly have absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever. This is why I pay good money to a professional
Load More Replies...Has anyone ever gotten a portrait tattoo that wasn't a horrible abomination?
There are some tattoo artists who doing amazing portraits. But you have to review their prior work and be willing to pay.
Load More Replies...I guess none of them asked to see the tattooist's portfolio beforehand.
Great. Bored Panda just gave a notification saying "Woopee! Your comment on [this article] has got its first upvote!" (This was the day after I had sent the comment, btw). I was super excited to see what comment it was, and guess what? BP decided to be funny and shorten the article to 50 (based on the most upvotes) and I'll never get to see my comment again, as I uploaded it on the 105 version! Damn it!!!!