One thing about tattoos, there is no eraser. No “delete” or “back” key. No “control + z” (keyboard command for undo). A tattoo is not an etch-a-sketch… you cannot shake it and start over. Romney has the patent on that.
Before getting a tattoo with any text of any type, it is highly recommended that a spell check is completed before the needle hits the skin. Google it. Grammar check it. If you and/or the artist’s English is not very strong, write it down and find someone whose English IS strong – neighbor, friend, teacher, librarian, convenience store clerk – and double/triple check the hell out of it. Have the paper with the CORRECT text right there next to the artist. Tic off each letter as the artist progresses. An ounce of prevention is worth a forever-lasting misspelled tattoo. When it comes to lettering, cover-ups just don’t do very well.
Here are some photos that some tattoo-ees (is that a word? Well, it is now) have shared online. A few of them may be fixed without too much work. But most will only provide an excellent visual aid as to why a student needs to study and learn their English.
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Credit: Tattoo Magz
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Tomorrow, tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow. But you cannot erase a misspelled tattoo….
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One of the more common misspellings we see these days, especially on the internet, is the improper usage of “your” and “you’re.” Well, same thing goes for tattoos….
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“To” versus “Too”
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Apparently “believe” is also a difficult word to spell….
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And lastly is a tattoo featuring a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861 in Washington, D.C. There are three misspelled words and the lack of punctuation makes it more difficult to understand. The correct quote is below the photo.
This is a shorter commonly used, but correct, version of the quote in the tattoo above:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
The full version of this quote is as follows:
“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Motley News 
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