Ariana Grande's new single "7 Rings" is an undeniable smash. She's made Billboard history by debuting the single — and its predecessor "Thank U, Next" — at number 1 on the charts. Grande decided to celebrate the accomplishment with some new ink, but things don't seem to have gone as planned. Ariana Grande's new palm tattoo means "BBQ Grill" — not "7 Rings" — according to native speakers of Japanese.
If you didn't see Grande's seemingly celebratory new ink, you won't actually find it on her social media channels anymore, and there's a pretty good reason for that. According to Buzzfeed, when taken individually, the Japanese characters stand for "7" and "wheels". However, a native speaker at Bustle explains that when taken together, the meaning of the kanji is actually "BBQ grill." So yes, Ariana Grande's palm tattoo does, in fact, mean BBQ grill.
Soon, the internet became a frenzy mocking Grande's new ink. Now, it's no where to be found on her social media channels. Of course, the mistaken translation is not the only issue with the tattoo. The use of Japanese culture and language in both the music video for "7 Rings" and Grande's tattoo calls forward questions of cultural appropriation.
In the video for '7 Rings," Grande uses Japanese characters and imagery to create a questionable aesthetic for the song. The video also seems to invoke the shape of Japanese characters to spell out things like her name and the song title, but does little to actually honor the culture from which they came. The same can be said of Grande's tattoo. The ink appears to be more of a running theme for the song than a way to pay respect to Japanese culture.
In fact, in a screenshot captured by a Twitter user, Grande appears to allegedly recognize the mistranslate but explains that it's okay because the tattoo "still looks tight." Others seem to have noted the alleged tweet as well.
Of course, Grande is no stranger to what could be deemed tattoo "mistakes." It's no secret that the singer has a plethora of ink. However, she has had a few times where her love of tattoos wound her back up in a chair to get a cover-up.
Back in October of last year, Grande and her ex-fiancé Pete Davidson had gotten several tattoos together. One of them was the word reborn. The ink was on Grande's hand, but in an Instagram story posted to her account, you could see that she'd covered up the tattoo and changed it into a feather.
Then, there was the tattoo that Grande got in honor of Davidson's late father who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. In a behind the scenes look at her "Thank U, Next" video, Grande can be seen showing off a new tattoo that reads Myron. The ink is a seeming tribute to Mac Miller by way of his dog Myron who Grande adopted following Miller's untimely passing. That Myron tattoo? Yeah, it's in the same location as the former tattoo she got for Davidson's father.
Will Ariana Grande's palm tattoo be added to her list of concealed tattoos? Maybe. For now, though, all traces of the ink are gone from social media, so only time will tell if the ink changes.
