Ariana Grande’s Japanese “7 Rings” Tattoo Actually Means “Small Charcoal Grill”
Ariana Grande fucked up. The pop star just got a tattoo to celebrate her new #1 single “7 Rings.” The tattoo, which she revealed on Instagram last night, is on the palm of her hand. It’s supposed to say “7 Rings” in Japanese kanji. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite succeed.
【Instagramより】
アリアナがまた日本語のタトゥーを追加!今度はなんと漢字で「七輪」
「みんなこれは私の手じゃないって思っているみたいだけど、本当に私の手よ」とコメントしています。
「七つの指輪」を略して「七輪」かなとても気に入っているよう#アリアナ pic.twitter.com/wR55jgu7FU— アリアナ・グランデ JP公式 (@ariana_japan) January 30, 2019
According to Kotaku, the kanji character 七 means “seven” and 輪 means “ring” or “wheel.” So far so good. But when you put them together as 七輪, it means something completely different: shichirin, which is a small charcoal grill used for Japanese barbecue. This is a shichirin:
アリアナが七輪のタトゥー入れてる笑 pic.twitter.com/9Jj4Fs2hIE
— at (@aoi80550747) January 30, 2019
Once Japanese fans started pointing out her mistake, Grande deleted the picture of the tattoo from her Instagram. “Indeed, I left out ‘つの指’ which should have gone in between,” she wrote in a since deleted tweet. “It hurt like fuck 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. Also… huge fan of tiny bbq grills.”
The music video for “7 Rings” features a title card in Japanese. There, the title is correctly written as 七つの指輪 — nanatsu no yubiwa, or “seven rings.” The cover art and merch for Grande’s upcoming album thank u, next also features Japanese characters, and she recently got “let’s sing” tattooed on her arm in Japanese.
Funnily enough, this is now the second grill-related celebrity tattoo mishap. In 2017, Ed Sheeran got “Galway Grill” tattooed on him thanks to Saoirse Ronan. It was supposed to say “Galway Girl.”