Ariana Grande Forced to Defend Japanese Tattoo Fail After Cultural Appropriation Claims
By Kwadar Ray

Just when Ariana Grande thought she was finished with tattoo mishaps, this week has proven otherwise.
The Grammy-nominated singer debuted a new tattoo written in Japanese on the palm of her hand this past Tuesday. But there was a bit of a mistake. The tattoo, which spelled "shichirin," did not translate to "7 Rings" like she intended.
Instead, "shichirin" actually means a small charcoal grill. As expected, Twitter had a field day with the singer's mistake.
Guys, how many times do we Asians have to tell non-Asians to stop getting Asian tats for no reason? why did she need "7 rings" in japanese and not english? like. THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.
— Kimmy Yam (@kimmythepooh) January 30, 2019
Also she has hot dogs for a hand. https://t.co/UnuZhmom7M
Ariana wrote about the mishap on Twitter in a now-deleted tweet poking fun at herself.
"It hurt like f**k n still looks tight. I wouldn't have lasted one more symbol lmao," she wrote. "But this spot also peels a ton and won't last so if I miss it enough I'll suffer thru the whole thing next time. Also….huge fan of tiny bbq grills."
Ari got the ink fixed two days later, but unfortunately for her, there was still an error. This time, it translated to "Japanese BBQ Finger."
Why... how... now Ariana’s tattoo reads “Japanese BBQ finger” ? pic.twitter.com/zC2LxSKJtI
— Eimi Yamamitsu | 山光瑛美 (@eimiyamamitsu) January 31, 2019
Once again, social media made fun of the singer.
ariana grande somehow managed to make that tattoo worse.....now it means japanese bbq finger........GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING pic.twitter.com/UlVxoRtQV6
— Madison l PLAYING KH3 ? (@SPIDEYRIKU) January 31, 2019
But Grande is not here to apologize for the mistake this time around. In another now-deleted tweet, she wrote, "I also went back and got it fixed with the help of my tutor to be more accurate. i can't read or write kanji obviously. what do you want me to do? it was done out of love and appreciation. what do you want me to say?"
After accusations of racial insensitivity, Ari stated the tattoo was "appreciation," not cultural appropriation. "There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation," she wrote. "My Japanese fans were always excited when i wrote in Japanese or wore Japanese sayings on my clothing. however, all of the merch with Japanese on it was taken down from my site not that anyone cared to notice."
The only tweet the singer still has up regarding the folly is pretty blunt and sums up her feelings on the whole issue.
i’ll give y’all a million to get off my nuts https://t.co/7yMyP0eHtt
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) February 2, 2019
It'll be interesting see how this controversy impacts the performance of Ariana's upcoming album, Thank U, Next.