Ariana Grande’s new tattoo “??” means Japanese style bbq grill, not 7 rings. ? If you want to know about ??, 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. ? means 7 and ? 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 ?? which means 7 rings

— ???@SF (@non_sgr) January 30, 2019

A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Jan 29, 2019 at 12:46pm PST

A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Jan 25, 2019 at 5:19pm PST