Ariana Grande Reveals What Misspelled 7 Rings Tattoo Means

Ariana Grande has cleared the air on her new misspelled Japanese tattoo, admitting that she made a mistake.

Grande showed off the fresh ink recently. Etched into one corner of her palm, Grande believed that the Japanese characters read “7 Rings” — the title of her new single. After she posted it, fans let her know it actually read “shichirin,” or “charcoal grill.” Grande deleted the picture, and later came clean on Twitter, listing the characters missing from her tattoo.

“It hurt like f— [and] still looks tight,” she wrote in response to a fan. “I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbole (sic) lmao. But this spot also peels a ton and won’t last so if I miss it enough, I’ll suffer thru (sic) the whole thing next time.”

Grande ended the tweet with a black heart emoji and a face with big sorrowful eyes.

“Also…. huge fan of tiny bbq grills,” she added wryly. Before long, she deleted those tweets as well.

Many fans were not amused by the whole ordeal, particularly after the initial backlash to “7 Rings” and its music video. When Grande dropped the track, it was immediately compared to the work of several other artists, including Soulja Boy and Princess Nokia, first and foremost. The song includes lines about “buying” hair, which many saw as an appropriation of Princess Nokia’s lyrics and black culture in general.

In light of that, the Japanese character tattoo itself, not to mention her explanation of the mistake, was just another case of Grande flippantly trying on another cultural identity insensitively.

“Girl, it’s not an aesthetic for you to wear like that,” one fan tweeted at Grande. “It’s like someone getting a ‘no regerts’ tattoo and saying ‘it still looks tight.’ No, it looks dumb and makes you look ignorant.”

“Another reason why I can’t listen to Ariana Grande‘s music: language is an aesthetic in her world,” another person wrote.

In fairness, Grande has shown her casual attitude about tattoos in the past. The singer got several matching tattoos with former fiance Pete Davidson, which she simply covered up after their break-up.

Grande has deleted all three posts about the tattoo and has yet to address the fall out again. The singer is typically known for her transparent communication with fans, but has been more reserved since “7 Rings” was released.

Meanwhile, Grande is still promoting her upcoming album, Thank U, Next, which is out on Feb. 8. The album is available through pre-order, and is coming just a few short months after Grande released Sweetener.