Worst Tattoos Ever: Hilariously Regrettable Tattoo Disasters

The Tattoo Artist Is Not An Artist Not everyone has the skills and natural talent needed to be a tattoo artist. You can teach someone the… MN Staff - AS - May 19, 2023

Tattoos can be a beautiful form of self-expression and an amazing piece of artistry when they’re done correctly. Even a terrible idea can be transformed into a stunning design with the right tattoo artist. It’s so disappointing when your tattoo doesn’t come out the way you’d hoped, but there’s an entire level of tattoo failure that blows past the point of sympathy and straight to hilarity! Maybe you’ve witnessed a tattoo drawn with a shaky hand or one with a misspelled word, but we guarantee you’ve never seen tattoo disasters like these before. Keep scrolling to laugh, cringe, and stare in awe at these hilariously regrettable tattoo mistakes.

Nothing About This Tattoo Is Right

While the sentiment behind this tattoo is nice, everything else about it is not. The tattoo artist spelled “nobodies” instead of “nobody’s,” and the sloppy line work on both words is kind of horrifying to look at. The spacing between the words and the heart is uneven, and the heart itself is shaded in super awkwardly. Basically, everything about this tattoo was a massive mistake. Perhaps she can get some type of cover-up if she seeks out a professional!

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A Purposeful Disaster?

Lots of people enjoy getting short poems tattooed on their bodies. The tattoos most people choose have a deeper meaning to them and represent an important time or person in their lives, but not Dave. Dave’s poem reads, “Roses are red. My name’s Dave. This poem makes no sense. Microwave.” We can only assume Dave has a very peculiar sense of humor and crafted this poem with the intention of tattooing it on his body. Maybe he wanted to be featured on this list!

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The Tattoo Artist Is Not An Artist

Not everyone has the skills and natural talent needed to be a tattoo artist. You can teach someone the basics of drawing or painting, but without a natural talent for it, their work will never be as good as those who were born with a paintbrush in their hands. The tattoo ‘artist’ who created this monstrosity must be super oblivious to his lack of skill. The tattoo looks like it was drawn by a 7-year-old!

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It’s The Haircut For Us

Plenty of bald people get intricate tattoos on the back of their heads. Some people get really intricate designs that look like hair, while others prefer to take a more comedic approach. This man had an entire face tattooed on the back of his head and, while the tattoo itself looks great, the hair is really throwing us off. It’s supposed to be the mustache of the tattooed man, but when you think about the fact that he just has an odd portion of hair on the back of his head, it’s actually pretty awkward.

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Dad’s “Aingel?”

The relationship between a father and his daughter is very special. It’s one of the most important bonds in each person’s life, and lots of parents and children decide to get tattoos mentioning their connection. However, most people would make an effort to make sure their tattoos are spelled correctly! How did the tattoo artist and the person getting tattooed not notice their glaring error? There were only two words to spellcheck!

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You Get What You Pay For

Losing a pet is one of the most painful experiences in life. We create such a strong connection with our pets, and the tragedy of their loss is something that takes ages to recover from. Many people will get a memorial tattoo of their pet, and that’s what the man in this photo set out to do. Unfortunately, he had a limited budget and was left with this generic and awkward-looking tattoo. Looking at this probably doesn’t ease the pain of his loss.

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Just Say, “Turkey Sandwich!”

Getting tattoos done in other languages may look cool, but it’s always risky. Unless you’re fluent in that other language or you know someone who is, you take the risk of having a word or expression permanently etched onto your skin that you didn’t want. The person in this photo realized too late that the Chinese characters he’d chosen for his tattoo actually spell “turkey sandwich.” At least if he’s ever in China and needs to order food, he can just point at his arm!

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Can It Get Better?

This is another example of a tattoo grammar failure. It’s really hard to believe that the artist and the person who got tattooed didn’t notice the glaring grammatical error here, but perhaps they were distracted by other things. The apostrophe S should follow the word “get” not “it.” We hope this tattoo can get better with a cover-up from a better artist!

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Does He Want To Give Up Or Not?

Inspirational tattoos are one of the most popular types of tattoos people get. There are thousands of common words and phrases people will get tattooed to remind themselves to stay strong and never give up. But the tattoo in this picture is super confusing and a major fail. The tattoo reads, “Never Don’t Give Up.” So… is he saying that he does want to give up? Or did he simply misread and misunderstand the idea? We’ll never know!

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This Is Too Cringe

Most people would try to avoid drawing extra attention to a large mole. There’s nothing uncommon about having one of these, but they are a little unsightly, and most people don’t want to make them more obvious than they already are. The man in this photo decided to go an entirely different route and incorporate the mole into a tattoo! The idea could have worked if he’d done an intricate design that somewhat covered the mole, but instead, he basically drew an arrow pointing it out!

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All Stereotypes In One Tattoo

The tramp stamp was the most stereotypical white girl tattoo for many years, but that’s changed recently. Now, the types of tattoos young white girls are known for getting include heartbeat monitor lines, arrows, dream catchers, and the Tree of Life. One girl decided to be “unique” and took on the challenge of combining all these stereotypical tattoos into one. The result is just as disastrous as you’d expect! This is going to be a really hard tattoo to cover-up one day.

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You Won’t Be Smiling When You See This

The idea behind this tattoo was fabulous, but the execution was awful. Setting aside the most obvious issue for the moment, that line work is atrocious! And the smiley face itself? What is it even supposed to be? Our best guess is some kind of peppermint candy, but that’s such a strange choice. The obvious issue is the word smiling behind spelled incorrectly. Seriously folks, have some double and triple-check the spellings of your tattoos before you get them done!

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Ouch! That Must Have Hurt

While this tattoo isn’t a failure because of poor spelling or artwork, it’s still an epic fail. Wanting to be unique and do something different is one thing, but tattooing a little smiley face on your nipple and giving it a fancy sombrero is crazy! Not only must that have hurt pretty bad, but it also doesn’t look fabulous. It’s hilarious, but not a tattoo anyone else would want to repeat. Perhaps that was the point?

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They Wanted This To Be Bad

When you look at the line and detail work on this tattoo, you can tell the artist is an experienced professional. The shading is done well, and everything looks even and well thought out. But that face is awful! This leads us to believe there’s only one reasonable conclusion to draw. The person who got this tattoo intentionally sought out their tattoo artist and said, “I want everything about this tattoo to look great, except for its face!”

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The Difference Between “Then” And “Than”

In all fairness, the English language can be pretty confusing. We have a lot of words that sound exactly the same, but mean something entirely different. The usual example of this phenomenon is the difference between “their,” “they’re,” and “there,” but this tattoo shows another awkward grammatical error. They were so close to having a decent tattoo here, but no one double-checked their thoughts before going forward. For the record, it should be “than,” not “then.”

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Bon Jovi Would Not Approve

Bon Jovi was a powerhouse musician back in his day. People still constantly refer to his songs and the words of wisdom weaved within them. It’s not unusual at all for people to tattoo song lyrics on themselves, and Bon Jovi’s lyrics probably have a place on thousands of people’s bodies all over the world. But most people probably thought to spellcheck the lyrics first! Bon Jovi would not approve of this silliness.

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Everything About This Is Cringy

There is literally so much wrong with this tattoo that it’s hard to know where to start. Let’s start with the simplest aspect of it- the artwork. The mural of MJ’s face is terrible, and the line-work of everything else sucks pretty badly too. Then we have the worst part of this tattoo- the quote. “He touched so many…,” was a very poor quote to choose, considering the accusations against Michael Jackson. This person should probably cover the entire tattoo with a design of vines or something. Anything would be better than this!

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The Nose Of The Tiger?

You know that brilliant song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor? That song was a serious hit and is still a frequently referenced song. Unfortunately, the eye of the tiger isn’t the only thing messed up about this tattoo. What is going on with this tigers nose? Is it supposed to be a super long, awkwardly shaped nose? Or is it intentionally shaped to resemble male genatalia? Either way, we’re embarrassed for this person!

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Freckles Or Stars?

Tattooing freckles on one’s body has become a wildly popular practice in recent years. Most tattoo artists can do this pretty easily and know to use a certain color and pattern. However, what you’re seeing in the picture above isn’t a bad attempt at tattooing freckles. This woman wanted to get a tattoo of a installation of stars and the result is pretty bad. No one really can tell what she wanted just by looking at the tattoo. It just looks like the tattoo artist wasn’t fully sober and started tattooing her with random dots.

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This Tattoo Is A Mess!

What do you see when you look at this tattoo? A child’s fingerprinting project gone wrong? This entire tattoo is one big glob of messy colors, and you’d never know what the tattoo artist was going for unless someone told you. Well, get ready to be shocked. Apparently, this tattoo is supposed to be of a galaxy. Maybe if you squint really hard a take a couple of shots it’ll look like a galaxy. Otherwise, it just looks like a big, messy glob.

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Always Plan Ahead

The irony of this tattoo cannot be understated. The person wanted to tattoo the words “plan ahead” across their fingers, but they ran out of fingers! The last letter of both words are missing, which leaves us literally laughing out loud. There’s no way this was an accident, right? Surely, this was an agreed upon plan between the tattoo artist and the person receiving the tattoo. If they wanted to get something ironic that would bring a smile to people’s faces, then they definitely succeeded!

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Don’t Listen To Tumblr

Tumblr can be a fun place to gush about your favorite fandom and connect with people who are passionate about the same things you are, but it’s not the best place to find tattoo ideas. Someone made the unfortunate mistake of trusting a Tumblr post and got a tattoo of these characters, thinking it meant, “appreciate life.” They were quickly corrected by a kind human on Twitter, who informed them of the real meaning of this tattoo. Apparently, it means “I’m rotten.” Time for a cover-up?

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This Is Terrifying

Marilyn Monroe was one of the most prominent actresses of her time. She’s often referred to as an example of classic American beauty standards, which is why so many people want to get a tattoo of her gorgeous face! We can’t blame them for that, but we absolutely blame the people involved in the creation of this monstrous tattoo! What were they thinking? Marilyn looks like she’s possessed by a demon! This is terrifying to look at.

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El Hopaness Romtic

Finger tattoos that spell out something significant can be beautiful when they’re done properly. Unfortunatley, these tattoos are super easy to mess up. This tattoo is a prime example of not thinking through how the tattoo is going to look before you go through with it. The person actually meant for this message to read as, “hopeless romantic,” but most people read it as “el hopaness romtic.” We’re crying and laughing at this one!

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Two Right Hands

The Mario franchise is massive! There are dozens of games in this universe, a handful of movies, and tons of merch. Lots of people get tattoos of their favorite video game characters, so that’s not the cringy part of this tattoo. What’s hilarious is the way the artist and the person who got the tattoo didn’t notice that they were giving Mario two right hands! How will this affect Mario’s ability to save the Princess? At first glance, most people won’t even notice the mistake, so hopefully the person who’s living with this tattoo isn’t too upset.

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Oof! How Does This Happen?

It’s just wild to think people are out here getting tattoos and never spellchecking them! How did this person manage to mess up their tattoo this badly? While the message of the tattoo itself is nice, the glaringly obvious grammatical errors are a massive issue. Aside from that, there’s another issue with this picture. Why is this person’s bed so dirty? We hope they changed their bedsheets after they took this picture!

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Is This A Joke?

The image this person got tattooed on themselves is completely unrecognizable from its subject. Apparently, the tattoo is supposed to be the face of a cougar, but it certainly doesn’t look like one! The tattoo looks like an imaginary creature from a really low-budget and poor-quality cartoon. When you look at the face, you realize that it also looks very sad. Why would you want a sad cougar face tattooed on your skin? These animals are graceful and fierce! Sadly, this is another example of what happens when you don’t vet your tattoo artist properly.

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Don’t Trust Her Sense Of Direction

The sad thing about this tattoo is that it’s actually really good quality. You can tell the artist is experienced and knows what they’re doing. We should probably just blame the artist for the incorrect placement of the directions, but we’re guessing the woman had something to do with it. Was this supposed to be ironic or some sort of statement? Either way, it just tells us not to trust her sense of direction!

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The Real M&M

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Because we’re pretty sure the real rapper doesn’t have a blue face! Who knows what this person was thinking when they got this tattoo done? Our best guess was the round blue face was a play on the way Eminem’s name sounds like the delicious chocolate candies. Still, it’s a pretty disturbing image and gets creepier the longer you look at it. Despite that, it’s actually a very good quality tattoo, so points for that!

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This Is Why You Need A Professional

There’s a good reason why professional tattoo artists charge as much as they do. They are the ones with the right skills, tools, and knowledge to create high-quality and visually astonishing tattoos. When you try to replicate their art on your own without the proper equipment and skills, you get this as a result. A very sad, awkward-looking lion that no one will be impressed by. We hope this girlfriend went to a professional tattoo artist and got a coverup done!

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Can I Go To The Bathroom?

Cross tattoos are very popular, especially when a person has experienced the loss of a loved one. It’s a great way to memorialize their memory and keep a piece of them with you forever. However, if you plan on tattooing a sweet phrase, you’d better make sure you’re 100% sure that you’re happy with what it says! The person who got this tattoo thought the words said, “Forever in my heart.” An Irishman on Reddit commented and said the phrase actually means, “Do I have permission to go to the bathroom?” Talk about awkward!

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King Kong?

Tattooing the back of your head is an interesting choice. You never get to see the tattoo yourself, so it’s mostly done as an aesthetic choice. This man shaved a portion of the back of his head and convinced a tattoo artist to place a gorilla there! We have to admit that the result is pretty stunning. It’s kind of crazy to look at because it’s so realistic and captivating. The real question is- will this person keep shaving their head to reveal the tattoo? Or, will their hair eventually grow out and leave the tattoo as a hidden surprise for their future hairdresser?

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Patients Is A Virtue

The phrase, “patience is a virtue,” has never been more true than it is today. Everyone had to be very patient during the pandemic while we waited for life to return to some semblance of normalcy. You would think during all that free time this person would have thought to spellcheck their tattoo! How do you manage to misspell the only word that makes up your tattoo? Rather than reading as an inspirational message, this tattoo feels a little tone-deaf by suggesting that patients (as in people seeking medical treatment) are virtues. This is awkward all around.

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That Sinking Feeling

Have you ever had your hopes up for something to come out amazing, only to experience that awful sinking feeling when you take a look at it? We can only imagine that is how this person must have felt when they saw their tattoo. Clearly, they wanted a tattoo that replicated the image on their phone, and they were left with a super low-quality and unprofessional version instead. We hope they got their money back because this is a major disappointment!

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Dog Tits

What do you do when you want to get a tattoo but can’t think of any good ideas? Well, you pick something random that makes you laugh! At least, that’s what the person featured in this picture did. Rather than getting a tattoo filled with significance, he decided to get several nipples tattooed down his abdomen. Then, just for good measure, he also got the words “dog tits” tatted on himself. Is it hilarious? Absolutely! Is it super bad? It’s really, really bad.

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What Does This Say?

Looking at this tattoo gives us some Deja vu. It gives us the same vibes as the “el hopaness romtic” tattoo. At least with that tattoo, you could eventually figure out what it means. We have no idea what to make of this tattoo! The words “live your truth” are easy enough to see, but the words in the middle are very confusing. We think it’s supposed to spell out, “I am who I am.” But even that doesn’t make a ton of sense. Someone should have sat this person down and told them to rethink this tattoo.

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Turtle Head

Turtles are actually awesome animals, so we can’t blame this guy for wanting to get one of them tattooed on him. However, we are judging for the turtle tattoo covering his entire head! It looks super weird, even though the tattoo is actually pretty good quality. The image is just confusing. Is he pretending to have a turtle friend that follows him around everywhere? Regardless of his intentions and the quality of this tattoo, it falls flat.

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This Is Too Disturbing

Some face tattoos look great, but this is just disturbing. This man got a smaller version of his own face tattooed on his face, and the result is like something out of a nightmare! It’s hard to know where to look when you see this picture, and the longer you look at it, the worse it seems to get. There’s nothing pleasant or interesting about this tattoo. It’s just plain creepy!

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The Shoulder Straps Are A Mistake

This person got a nice, simple tattoo across the front of their shoulder, but they didn’t think about how it would look once they were wearing a dress with shoulder straps. Instead of being a cute tattoo featuring an inspirational message, it’s turned into something hilarious! Maybe this was intentional, and she wanted to draw attention to that part of her body. Regardless, it’s not a very appropriate tattoo to have when you’re at work, so hopefully, her outfits cover it!

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Excellent Recreation

Asking inexperienced tattoo artists to recreate incredible tattoos almost never ends well. This person learned that the hard way when they brought their tattoo artist a picture of a tatt with birds soaring over a tree. The resulting tattoo is pretty low-quality, badly shaded, and an overall disappointment. Do you think this person asked for a refund? Because they probably should have! Or, at the very least, they should have asked for a free cover-up.

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“Tribal Tattoo”

This is so intentionally bad that it’s actually really hilarious. Lots of people enjoy getting tribal tattoos, and many tattoo artists have even commented on how popular this trend has become. Someone decided to make the trend their own and, instead of getting an actual design of a tribal tattoo, simply got the words “tribal tattoo” in quotes. This one make us choke on our coffee a bit.

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Religious Tattoo Gone Wrong

Religious symbols are probably one of the most popular tattoo themes in the world. A vast number of people have images of crosses, holy figures, and other religious symbols tattooed on their bodies. Many of these tattoos look amazing and provide comfort to people, but this tattoo isn’t providing comfort to anyone. The artist gave Jesus a face that does not look comforting, holy, or divine. It actually looks pretty scary, and we’d rather not look at this tattoo for another second!

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Faux Sunglasses

We don’t even know where to start with this one! Why would you do this? This man got a pair of fake sunglasses tattooed on his face, and it looks just as bad as it sounds. The way the frames constantly outline his eyes are super creepy, and the worst part is that the tattoo wasn’t even done well! The line work is sloppy, and the shading is inconsistent. Tattoo removal, anyone?

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Baby Shark Do Do Do Do Do Do

Baby Shark became a media sensation when the original video came out in 2015. Kids everywhere loved the musical jingle and the accompanying hand movements, while parents everywhere wanted to pull their hair out after listening to it for the millionth time. This person got a tattoo of the infamous line, “baby shark do do do do do do,” and immediately regretted it. He snapped a photo and captioned it with, “I’ve ruined my life.” Don’t worry dude, you can totally get that covered up!

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When Veganism Becomes Your Whole Personality

People like this give vegans a bad reputation. No one wants to feel like someone is shoving their ideals down their throat, but it tends to happen. Vegans get a lot of flack when they make their diet their entire personality, and this woman took this phenomenon a step too far. She got the word “vegan” tattooed on her face, specifically to let everyone she encounters know that she is a vegan. Not everyone needs to know about your dietary preferences!

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The Best Worst Tattoo

Okay, we really can’t complain about this tattoo too much. Anyone who grew up watching Spongebob in the 90s will instantly recognize the figure in this tattoo and have a good laugh. This is actually a cute idea and a pretty nostalgic tattoo. If you’re mad about this tattoo, you need to go back and rewatch this episode of Spongebob because it was an example of peak comedy!

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Puzzle Piece Tattoos

Puzzle piece tattoos are actually really cute when they’re done properly. It’s a great way of showing how much you love one another and how well you fit together. However, the couple in this photo didn’t think their tattoo through well enough. After sharing a picture of their tatts on social media, someone was quick to point out that they both got corner pieces that would never actually fit together. That’s pretty unfortunate.

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Tiger Lily?

Tiger lilies are gorgeous flowers, but people just can’t help themselves sometimes. Some people are so determined to set themselves apart from the crowd and be unique and the results can be disastrous. This person wanted a tiger lily tattoo with a face of a tiger in the middle. That’s fair enough, but the tattoo is such bad quality that it’s actually laughable. The petals of the flower look more like wilted bandaids than anything else!

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Poor Drunken Choice

This is a classic example of why you should never do any form of body modification while you’re intoxicated. Drunk you will make decisions that sober you will regret, and you’ll be left with a permanent reminder of that awful choice when tattooing is involved. This person got an angry Pikachu tattooed on his calf while he was drunk and has regretted it ever since. Learn from this person’s mistakes. Tattoos and booze don’t mix!

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