Embarrassing Tattoo: Difference between revisions

'''Sheldon''': No it isn't. But I suppose it does take courage to demonstrate that kind of commitment to soup.|'''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'''}}

 

 

This is slowly becoming a [[Discredited Trope]], due to three main reasons:

* The [[Humongous Mecha|Vox]] pilots in ''[[Rinne no Lagrange]]'' have their Memoria (marks that allow them to interact with said mecha) in...questionable places, to say the least (Muginami's in particular). Especially since it's implied that those are created where they're touched by the Vox.

** For those interested in specifics. {{spoiler|Madoka's in on her butt, Lan's somewhere near her breasts, and Mugi's is ''just'' above her crotch.}}

* Portgas D. Ace from ''[[One Piece]]'' wanted "ACE" tattooed on his arm. But apparently, the artist didn't know how to spell "ace", as he instead has "A S CE," with the "S" crossed out. This is never commented on.

** Actually easily explained if you pay attention to flashbacks and the like. He used to be captain of the Spade Pirates, the S being a symbol of the crew.

** Also never commented on, but Trafalgar Law has [[Knuckle Tattoos]] saying "DETH." Probably ran out of room.

*** Nah, it was retconned into a standard: ''DEATH''

** As of chapter 103, {{spoiler|That's "arms" plural, now}}

* 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]]!'' 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}}.

 

== Films -- Live-Action ==

* The con-artist protagonist of the western/comedy film ''[[Support Your Local Gunfighter]]'' has an enormous and embarrassing tattoo on his chest which honors his ditched fiancee. It finally gets burnt off in an explosion, allowing him to marry the Love Interest.

* 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.

** 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.]]

* A quote in the movie ''[[Down Periscope]]'' refers to a [[Take Our Word for It]] feature of Kelsey Grammer's character: "I don't think it's good policy for the Navy to hand over a billion-dollar piece of equipment to a man who has 'Welcome Aboard' tattooed on his penis!"

** 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 ''[[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.

* ''[[Grey's Anatomy|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?

* Dr Kelso in ''[[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."

* 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.

* 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]]'' tells Abby posthumously that she's incredibly embarrassed about Ducky seeing the tattoo of a bow she has on...er...her nether regions.

* Al considers getting a tattoo on ''[[Step by Step]]'', but changes her mind after Carol admits to having an old boyfriend's name tattooed on her butt.

* Mocked by ''[[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.

* In the ''[[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]]'', 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 ''[[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.

* In ''Big Bad [[Beetleborgs]]'', in order to get the kids to go along with a [[Zany Scheme]], Flabber offers to show them his tattoo. When the kids retort that they've seen tattoos before, he admits that this one is one his ''spleen''. That seals the deal.

** 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]]'' 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.

 

== Webcomics ==

** 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.

* A simple [http://images.google.com/images?q=bad+tattoos&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=rkowSsC6AZGgMp-ltf8J&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title google search for "bad tattoos"] unearths all kinds of hilarity.

* Upon his death, Bernadotte, the Napoleonic soldier who became the absolute monarch of Sweden, was supposedly found with a tattoo he received in his youth, ironically reading "death to all kings".

* Tian reviews many unfortunate tattoos with kanji/hanzi/Vaguely Asian Symbols at [http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/ Hanzi Smatter].

* David Beckham has his wife Victoria's name tattooed on his left arm in Hindi - only it is (apparently) mispelled.

* The UK men's magazine ''Nuts'' has a feature called "Naff Tats", in which readers send in pictures of their embarrassing tattoos - usually done when they were drunk.

* Ugliesttattoos.com. Enjoy the horror.

* [[Hayden Panettiere]] has "To live without regrets" tattooed on her left side in Italian, and much fun was had at her expense when it was pointed out it was misspelled.

* In 2009 a Belgian girl tattoed 56 stars on her face. After her parents became angry she claimed that she had fallen asleep during the procedure. She became the laughing stock of the entire nation and fell into a serious depression.

 

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Embarrassing Tattoo]]