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{{quote|'''Sheldon''': Why do you have the Chinese character for "soup" tattooed on your right buttock?<br />
'''Penny''': It's not "soup", it's "courage".<br />
'''Sheldon''': No it isn't. But I suppose it does take courage to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.|'''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|The Big Bang Theory]]'''}}
 
A comedy trope that is definitely [[Truth in Television]] is when a character will have a tattoo (sometimes in an embarrassing location) with various unsavory features, such as being misspelled, the name of a former love interest, written in a language the wearer does not understand and [[My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels|not meaning what he thinks]] (Chinese characters are good for this), etcetera, [[Alcohol-Induced Idiocy|sometimes the result of a drunken whim]]. However, this can also be used seriously as a version of [[Good Scars, Evil Scars]] where the tattoo is a representation of sin.
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** As does the tattoo on Riza Hawkeye's back, which may have been put there against her will.
* The Gonzales brothers, players for an American team in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', wanted tattoos based off of their nicknames, the elder being "Big and Useful" and the younger being "Little and Useful", rendered directly into kanji as ''daiben'' (大便) and ''shouben'' (小便). Unfortunately for them, those phrases mean "poop" and "pee" respectively.
* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]!'' plays with this in respect towards [[Shrinking Violet|Jacuzzi]]'s massive facial tattoo. While nothing is wrong with the tattoo itself, it clashes strongly with the boy's timid, unassuming nature so much that he treats it more like an embarrassing disfigurement than anything else. Some [[Fridge Brilliance]] stems from its origins as {{spoiler|the perceived disfiguring nature of it is ''exactly'' why he got it in the first place -- he got the tattoo immediately upon hearing that his best friend Nice [[Eye Scream|blew out her eye]] in a backyard explosives accident so that she wouldn't have to deal with the stares alone}}.
* Happens indirectly in ''This is Otakudom'', a [[Parody Dub]] of ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' that turns the cast into [[Otaku]] headed for an anime con. Tasuki, here portrayed as an overdramatic Goth, shows off his tattoo, which he claims means something long and pretentious about immortality in the shadows; subtitles then appear saying "Actual Translation: Stupid fanboy wasted his money".
 
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* In the movie version of ''[[McHales Navy]]'', McHale has dealt with the villain before, and once punished him by taking him (while unconscious) to get McHale's name and face tattooed across his entire torso. Backwards so it can be read in a mirror.
* Deputy Clementine Johnson in the ''Reno911'' movie gets a tattoo of somebody's face after a drunken night of lovemaking. She spends the rest of the movie trying ot figure out who it is. {{spoiler|Deputy Garcia}}
* Sally in [[Disney]]/[[Pixar]]'s ''[[Cars]]'' gets embarrassed when McQueen notices the marking on her rear end. It should be noted at this point, if you didn't know, that Sally (and [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|every other character in the film]]) is a car.
** So, in other words, she's got a [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=california+license+plate California license plate]? *drum roll*
*** Knowing Pixar, thats probably ''exactly'' [[Parental Bonus|the joke they were going for.]]
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** And later on that same character threatens, "There will not be a repeat of this embarrassment, because I will have his tattooed hide nailed to my office door!" You want to do ''what'' now?
* In the recent film version of ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', Gwendolyn has the name Ernest tattooed on her buttocks , which adds to her horror when "Ernest" tells her his real name is Jack.
* In ''[[Goldeneye (Film)|Goldeneye]]'', [[James Bond]] forces Jack Wade to show a rose tattoo with the name "Muffy" ("Third wife.") on his hip as part of the [[Trust Password]].
* ''[[Paul Blart: Mall Cop|Paul Blart, Mall Cop]]'' has the titular character get drunk (after stating that he doesn't drink), shortly after his daughter notices a tattoo of the Loch Ness Monster.
* One enthusiastic ''[[Star Wars]]'' fan in ''[[Fanboys (Film)|Fanboys]]'' shows the main characters his new tattoo based on the upcoming ''[[The Phantom Menace]]''. Of Jar-Jar Binks.
* Talia in ''[[Larry Crowne]]'' gets a free tattoo when she starts shop next to a parlor. It supposedly means "strong mind" but apparently actually reads "soy sauce"
* Kevin has gotten a huge tattoo of Pam while drunk in Eastern Europe in ''[[Little Fockers]]''.
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== Literature ==
* In Alfred Bester's novel ''[[The Stars My Destination (Literature)|The Stars My Destination]]'', the hero is given a horrific tattoo on his face by a [[Cargo Cult]] [[In Space]] which, while never completely described, seems to look like a tiger's face (the novel's original title was ''Tiger Tiger''). Interestingly, he does get it removed, but it ends up serving as a [[Marked Change]], as the lines still appear on his face when he is angry.
** The description and some illustrations make it out to look like a [[wikipedia:File:MaoriChief1784.jpg|Maori face tattoo]]-- with "N♂MAD" written across his forehead as well.
* A semi-humorous example is the forehead tattoo of the [[Badass]] mercenary Raven in ''[[Snow Crash]]'' reading "Poor Impulse Control". What makes this one less amusing is that it was given as a judicial punishment rather than a personal choice.
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* In ''[[Papillon]]'', the Masked Breton's cockroach tattoo, which is on his ''face''. As he tells Papillon and the other escapees, he foolishly got it in prison to look tough, but after escaping realized that it made him very easy to identify and would make a normal life almost impossible for him.
* In ''[[The Children of Captain Grant]]'' by [[Jules Verne]], {{spoiler|Dr. Paganel survives a stay with a friendly Maori chieftain who tattoos him top to bottom, and thenceforth becomes very protective of his modesty}}.
* In [[Robin Hobb]]'s ''[[Realm of the Elderlings (Literature)|Realm of the Elderlings]]'':
** In the ''Liveship Traders'' trilogy, Captain Kennit has a habit of tattooing symbols of his mistakes on his body, and then ''branding them off'' soon after.
** In the ''Tawny Man'' trilogy, we get tattoos that are both embarrassing and traumatic: both {{spoiler|the Fool and Elliania}} were forced by the Pale Woman to have dragons and serpents tattooed over their entire backs. In both cases, [[It Gets Worse]].
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* In ''[[The Millennium Trilogy]]'' {{spoiler|Lisbeth Salander tattoos her guardian very badly, and painfully, with "I am a sexist pig, a pervert and a rapist" on his stomach as revenge after he brutally rapes her. She prevents him from getting it removed, and he still has it when he dies.}}
* [[The Dresden Files|Father Forthill]] is revealed to have one of the Eye of Thoth, which he and several other newly christened priests got the morning after they killed a vampire (and celebrated by getting drunk.) {{spoiler|Harry had seen the symbol on a corpse earlier in the novel, so when he sees Forthill's tattoo, he realizes that Father Vincent (who helped kill the vampire, and the one who hired him to find the Shroud of Turin) is a fake.}}
* Glen Cook's [[Garrett PIP.I.|Garrett]] knew a guy from his Marine unit who'd gotten his penis tattooed like a serpent, and probably regretted it for the rest of his life. At the time, the guy just figured he'd rather be addressed as "Snakeman" than by his previous nickname of "Donkey Dick".
* At one point [[Sherlock Holmes]] did his trademark [[Sherlock Scan]] on a man and said that he was once in a close relationship he was later eager to forget. How did he know this? Because of a tattoo that the man had since attempted to remove with acid.
* One of the stories of ''[[Wayside School]]'' has Calvin's dad getting him a tattoo for his birthday. [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Mrs. Jewels]] [[Discussed Trope|advises him not to get something he thinks is cool now but will regret later, but rather something he will appreciate for the rest of his life]]. {{spoiler|He gets a potato on his ankle. Everybody mocks him for it, but he likes it.}}
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Bones (TV)|Bones]]'' has undoubtedly one of the most embarrassing tattoos - after breaking up with his fiance Angela, Hodgins is horrified to find [[Papa Wolf|her father]]<ref>It should also be noted that her father is Billy Gibbons from [[ZZ Top]]. Not played by Billy Gibbons. He IS Billy Gibbons.</ref> in town. Angela convinces her father to call it off - and then Hodgins wakes up in the middle of the desert, drugged, with Angela's face tattooed on his arm in scary perfection, with "Angela Forever" written at the bottom. Naturally, Angela is horrified ("You're ''sweating'' on me!")
** {{spoiler|Should be a bit less embarrassing since Hodgins and Angela made up and got married.}}
** Apparently Billy Gibbons really likes to kidnap and drug Hodgins and tattoo him. Now Hodgins has a tattoo of Billy Gibbons on his OTHER bicep. Wow, that oughta be great for their sex life...
* In an episode of ''[[Green Wing]]'', Guy Secretan tries to prove his love by getting a tattoo of a Friesian cow on his rib cage, thinking it was Caroline Todd's favourite thing. She, however, meant freesia, the flower.
* In one episode of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', Lister worries his crew-mates may have seen his tattoo: "I don't really love Petersen, he just got me so drunk that I didn't know what I was doing."
* On ''[[Cheers (TV)|Cheers]]'', Norm and Cliff discover that they had gotten tattoos on their butts, only they had mixed up the requests: Norm's reads "Post Office Forever", while Cliff's reads "I love Vera".
* Ted from ''[[How I Met Your Mother (TV)|How I Met Your Mother]]'' went to a tattoo parlor on a drunken dare while trying to get over a break-up and ended up with a butterfly on his lower back (or as Barney puts it, "a tramp stamp, a ho tag..."). It turns out the tattoo artist was recently dumped by the girl Ted was making out with (the one who dragged him there to get a tattoo).
* The trope forms the basis of the ''[[ThreesThree's Company]]'' episode "Jack's Tattoo," in which Jack finds out that, while he was in a drunken stupor, his old navy buddies gave him a heart-shaped tattoo on his derrière, with the inscription "The Love Butt." Multiple misunderstandings arise when Jack goes to the hospital to have it removed, with Janet thinking that's he's having a vasectomy and Mr. Furley thinking that he's having an operation to become "Jacqueline."
* In ''[[Auf Wiedersehen Pet]]'', Neville, who is the nicest of the characters and happily married to Brenda, wakes up after a night of drinking to find "Neville Loves Lottie" tattooed on his arm. He doesn't even ''know'' anyone called Lottie.
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' Giles has a tattoo on his arm of a strange symbol. It's revealed that its the mark of a demon called Eyghon which he and some friends summoned in their youth which will eventually [[Demonic Possession|inhabit their bodies]] and then kill them. Even after the demon is defeated he keeps the tattoo; it even shows up in the (canonical) Season 8 comic books where Faith spots it.
{{quote| '''Faith:''' When did ''you'' get ink?<br />
'''Giles:''' Faith, do you honestly think you're the first person to have stumbled upon the notion of rebellion? Do you think you were the first who ever let an innocent person get hurt because of your own stupidity? [[Not So Different|You and I aren't so unalike.]] But those of us who refused to pay the piper during our adolescence have a responsibility to shoulder the most unpleasant costs of adulthood. }}
** That line from Giles is even more meaningful if you know the (non-canon) origins of Faith's tattoo. Like Giles, it's actually the mark of a demon, in this case the Mark of Kakistos, given to her while being possessed by a dead Greek Slayer.
* The coach from [[Saved Byby the Bell]] : The college years has got [[Looney Tunes|Tweety Bird]] on his butt. But he was a bit younger and thinner when he first got it, leading to this remark;
{{quote| "Coach has [[Sesame Street|Big Bird]] on his butt!" }}
* An episode of ''[[ER (TV)|ER]]'' has a patient with a Ku Klux Klan tattoo: when he regains consciousness, he tells them he's renounced the KKK and keeps the tattoo to remind him of his past.
* ''[[Grey's Anatomy (TV)|Greys Anatomy]]'' had a [[Patient of the Week]] who repeatedly asked to be treated by an another doctor. Eventually, he was forced to show his tattoo, which revealed that he's a neo-Nazi and did not want to be treated by the Asian, Jewish and/or black protagonists.
** What [[Fridge Logic|makes it weird]] is that never outright demands a white doctor, he just keeps asking for someone else when he keeps getting minority doctors. He's rather polite, if terse, about wanting someone different. And when his gigantic-ass tattoo (which he claims was a drunken mistake, [[Did Not Do the Research|even though it clearly would've taken several separate sessions to complete]]) is revealed, he says he didn't want Dr. Bailey, who is black, to see it because she "might take offense." Uh...isn't that kind of THE POINT of being a white supremacist?
** When the neo-Nazi/white supremacist needs surgery, Dr. Bailey, the spunky female black doctor has to operate on him. After she finishes, she decides that the skin around the cut is "jagged" and so she stitches the swastika back together as an S shape instead of the original swastika.
* Dr Kelso in ''[[Scrubs (TV)|Scrubs]]'' has "Johnny" tattooed on his buttock (While Johnny has "Bobby" tatooed on his). "He's an old [[Hello, Sailor!|sailor buddy, and if you went through what we did]], you'd understand."
* Roxie from ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' is revealed to have an "I Love Hanson" tattoo, that she got on a whim and wants removed.
* From ''[[Living With Fran]]'', Josh's girlfriend has a tattoo with Ryley's name. Subverted as she had several tattoos and considered her body a panel to tattoo other names (including Josh's).
* In an episode of ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]'', Berg tried to prevent Pete from discovering that Pete's new girlfriend had his [Berg's] name tattooed on her body in a very intimate place.
* In a subversion, grade schooler Little Pete in ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'' had a tattoo of a lounging Spanish woman that he called "Petunia" and was later revealed to have another of a sailing ship. The person that was embarrassed was not Pete, but his mother, because her youngest son had the tattoos, and she made him cover them with long clothing up no matter what time of year it was.
* A dating service video sketch in ''[[Smack the Pony]]'' had "an ex punk, looking for a soulmate with equally regrettable past" and revealing she has an obscene tattoo on her forehead covered by her hair.
* Kate in ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'' tells Abby posthumously that she's incredibly embarrassed about Ducky seeing the tattoo of a bow she has on...er...her nether regions.
* ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' shows Brenda has the name "Nathaniel" tattooed on her back, just as she begins dating Nate. {{spoiler|She and her brother got matching tattoos, and when he had a breakdown, he removed his with a knife, and tried to do the same to her, as a sign of her "betrayal".}}
* Al considers getting a tattoo on ''[[Step Byby Step]]'', but changes her mind after Carol admits to having an old boyfriend's name tattooed on her butt.
* Mocked by ''[[Saturday Night Live (TV)|Saturday Night Live]]'' in a fake commercial for Lower Back Tattoo remover. It's just a bottle of acid that leaves a horrid scar where the tattoo was.
* It was a plot in an episode of ''[[Married... Withwith Children (TV)|Married With Children]]'' when Jefferson got a tattoo on his butt for his wife Marcy but since the tattoo artist was plastered, it ended up spelled 'Mary'. {{spoiler|Even after Jefferson managed to get it changed. It was changed to 'Marty'.}}
* In the ''[[That 70s Show]]'' episode "Eric's Drunken Tattoo", Eric wants to tattoo of Donna's name on his butt, but since he has [[Erudite Stoner|Leo]] to do it, he ends up with a picture of Woodstock from ''[[Peanuts]]''.
* In the ''[[The Big Bang Theory (TV)|The Big Bang Theory]]'' episode "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", it's revealed that Penny has a Chinese character tattooed on her butt, which is supposed to mean "courage", but according to Sheldon, it actually means "soup".
* In ''[[ICarly (TV)|I Carly]]'', one of the characters had to get a tattoo of Sam's face after losing a bet. {{spoiler|It was fake, but he didn't know it until it was too late...}}
* In ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' Russell Huxtable was revealed to once had a tattoo done on his chest for Anna. Unfortunately, he had a cold at the time and so it was spelled 'Adda' who was Anna's chief rival. He had that removed but left a scar on his chest.
* In ''[[Grounded for Life]]'' Lily has a tattoo of a golden sprite on her lower back, with a banner reading "Dean", only discovered by his new boyfriend, Brad until months into their relationship. He gets over it, as Lily says that the tattoo means less than what she does, and it serves as a reminder that in the end, she chonse Brad over Dean... though the fact that the money Brad offered for getting it removed were meant to buy her an iPod, and once she heard about that, changed her mind about the removal.
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* The end result is never seen, but one ''[[Whitest Kids U Know]]'' sketch shows an inebriated character in the process of coming up with one of these. The end result is: [[Super Mario Brothers|Bowser]] wearing shades, wailing on a double-necked guitar, on a surfboard, in front of a huge pot leaf, in front of a cross, with "Happy Birthday Rick" written above it.
** Someone took the bullet for the rest of us [http://www.geekologie.com/2008/03/24/questionable-bowser-tattoo.jpg and there are no words to explain how much this guy is going to hate himself in twenty years.] Make no mistake it looks awesome but...
* ''[[True Life (TV)|True Life]]'' profiled people with these on the episode "I Hate My Tattoos". The first person was a former criminal who got his tattoos done while drunk by a friend (who wasn't a tattoo artist), and as a result not only were the tattoos all over his neck but they also looked like a child drew them. The second person had tattoos all over his body but was trying to get a white collar job. The third person tattooed her boyfriend's name on her arm and shortly afterwards they broke up.
* Defied in the Tru TV show ''[[All Worked Up]].'' Byran the process server had to deal with a tattoo artist who tattooed a man with Japanese kanji, only to wound up being a [[Foreign Cuss Word]], so the artist was going to be sued and first served by Byran. Rage would later ensue.
* In a [[Ripped from the Headlines]] example, one of the minor cases on ''[[Crownies (TV)|Crownies]]'' involved a tattooist who tattooed a giant penis on a friend's back while they were both drunk.
* ''[[The ChasersChaser's War Onon Everything]]'': Chas attempts to make one side of his body look like Daniel Craig ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]) and gets a tattoo of a 'Japanese character' on his upper arm. He ends up with a tattoo of [[Hello Kitty]].
 
 
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== Videogames ==
* In ''[[Nancy Drew (Videovideo Gamegame)|Danger By Design]]'', a fashion-designer who wears a mask throughout the game turns out to have been hiding a stupid-looking tattoo of an alien's face on her cheek.
 
 
== Webcomics ==
* [[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Roy]]'s father one-ups this by not only getting a drunk tattoo but also a ''Blood Oath of Vengeance'' to go with it.
** If you decode the Haley-speak in strip [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0309.html 309], she says she has a tattoo Elan doesn't know about. We get to see it in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html 468] (warning: spoilers ahoy).
* When Zoe from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is given a tattoo on her chest thanks to a mistake with magic, her main concern is that it turns her into a camel whenever someone says "shupid," but does have to go through great pains to hide it from her puritanical mother.
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* Joel in ''[[Concession]]'' was unwittingly subjected to a [http://concessioncomic.com/index.php?pid=20100727 series of body modifications that increased with blood alcohol level]: Ear clip, eyebrow stud, and lip ring at .05; a tattoo of a butterfly on his arm at .10; and his (recently very dominant) boyfriend's name ''branded on his ass'' at .15.
* ''[[Full Frontal Nerdity]]'': According to one strip, Lewis has a map to the Safe House bar in Milwaukee tattooed on his butt.
* In the [[All There in the Manual|cast interviews]], Conrad of ''[[Hanna Is Not a BoysBoy's Name]]'' admits to having a 'raptor-ish dinosaur skeleton' on his shoulder blade, which he [[Old Shame|isn't particularly proud of.]]
* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', Shelly had a tattoo that she was somewhat ashamed of. While the tattoo itself is not particularly embarrassing, it is big enough to cover the entire front of her body, it [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/somewheresafe/ showed up] [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/atattoo/ unexpectedly,] and [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/piratemovie/ it signifies her connection to a paranormal mess she isn't sure she wants to be involved with.]
* Graham in ''[[Wizard School (Webcomic)|Wizard School]]'' gets a series of stars tattooed on his face in a drunken haze in an attempt to impress an (evil) woman. When he wakes up (after being abducted to the titular school) he seems more annoyed about the tattoo than about his forced confinement.
 
 
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* Hank in ''[[King of the Hill]]'' had "Bill" tattooed on the back of his head, as result of a drunken night and a well-timed rescue by Bill. In a slight subversion, when he discovered the tattoo, he immediately had it removed, but later had it put back on in order to help Bill out of a funk.
* Joan of Arc in ''[[Clone High]]'' has one - a cartoon dolphin saying "Whazzup??!!" on her ankle - which she got when she stayed awake for weeks on end. She shows it to Abe to persuade him to sleep. "My judgement was so poor I actually paid money for this!"
* On ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'', Hayley has a tattoo of the Ghostbusters 2 logo on her chest (it was supposed to be a protest tattoo, but she smoked salvia while she chose a design).
** Actually that was just body paint.
* This short-lived FOX Family cartoon called ''[[Monster Farm]]'' (not to be confused with the anime series ''[[Monster Rancher]]'') had an episode where a goat/dragon-type creature (Goatasaurus Rex) resorts to blackmail in order to become leader of the farm. One of the secrets he threatens to reveal is that Dr. Woolly (a sheep mad scientist with a monster alter ego named Mr. Ewwwe) has a "risque tattoo" that can only be seen when he's sheared (this could also apply as a [[Noodle Incident]] since it's not known when, where, why, or how Dr. Woolly got the tattoo and a [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?]] moment as the tattoo is never mentioned again in the show's short run).
* An episode of the show ''[[Braceface]]'' has Sharon going behind her mom's back to get a Chinese character tattoo that allegedly means, "Freedom" (it actually means, "grapefruit.") In the same episode, Sharon's mom reveals that when she was young, she got a tattoo of a disco ball on her rear end (which she had to have removed when she realized it looked like a golf ball).
* Dean from ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' apparently has a dolphin tramp stamp (tattoo on the small of the back), but since the characters are rendered as 8-bit sprites, [[Take Our Word for It|you'll have to take our word on this one.]]
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