When it comes to keeping her fans guessing, Lady Gaga is truly a professional. We never know what to expect next from Mother Monster, and whether she’s taking the reins of a giant robot or showing up to the red carpet looking like an IRL princess, we’re always left amazed. And after debuting a brand-new tattoo, the singer has once again left fans puzzled, with many trying to solve the mysterious meaning behind her ink.
Just days after debuting a new tattoo inspired by A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga showed off some arm ink featuring musical notes on a scale. As noted by Refinery29, fans on Instagram soon pointed out that the fifth line required of sheet music was missing from Gaga’s ink. Deleting the post, she returned moments later, showing the addition of a fifth line with the caption: “musical crisis averted.”
However, fans are now divided on how the notes are meant to be read. While some fans believe the music is spelling out G-A-G-A by reading the notes in treble clef, others pointed out that if you read the music as being in bass clef, the notes spell out B-C-B-C, which could be a possible nod to her manager Bobby Campbellor her Star Is Borncostar Bradley Cooper.
One fan believed it might be a clue to future music, tweeting, “I’m betting that is the title of LG6, and she’s doing the rock hand gesture, maybe rock genre??? Or am I reaching.”
And one user decided that we’ll simply never know until Lady Gaga explains, tweeting, “There’s no treble clef so we really have no idea what those notes are…could be ABAB or BCBC….”
Luckily, Mother Monster seems to have settled the debate herself, confirming that the tattoo is “my name, written in music.”
Ariana Grande took to Twitter this week to write a now deleted thread addressing people who think her new tattoo written in Japanese kanji is cultural appropriation.
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, here’s a quick recap: It all unfolded last week, when Grande posted a picture of some new hand ink she received to commemorate her song “7 Rings.” However, social media users quickly pointed out that while the tattoo intended to say “7 Rings,” it actually read shichirin, or “small Japanese barbecue grill.” Grande took the incident in stride, admitting she left off a symbol because it was too painful to finish. “It hurt like fuck n still looks tight. I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao,” she wrote at the time.
She then attempted to fix the ink but it still didn’t read 100 percent correctly.
For some, this incident was more than just a funny faux pas. Several social media users alleged Grande’s tattoo is a form of cultural appropriation, and a few also said the Japanese writing on her website merchandise was insensitive.
But in a series of now deleted tweets, Grande responded to users who called her out. “I can’t read or write kanji obviously,” she tweeted to a person who urged her to apologize, saying that she has “many a time.” “What do you want me to do? It was done out of love and appreciation. What do you want me to say?”
She continued, “U kno how many people make this mistake and DON’T care just cause they like how it looks? Bruh… I care sooooo much. What would u like me to do or say? Forreal. There is a difference between appropriation and appreciation. 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.”
In a final note before she deleted the tweets, Grande suggested the situation was affecting her anxiety. “I have crippling anxiety lol. I don’t like hurtin ppl,” she wrote. “People on this app really don’t know how to be forgiving or gentle when someone has made an innocent mistake. No one considers feelings other than their own. It’s very pointless. Ion [I don’t] even know why I’m talking ab[out] this anymore.”
This was a much lengthier response than what Ariana Grande gave to TMZ after the website reported she was offered a $1.5 million deal to remove her tattoo. “I’ll give y’all a million to get off my nuts,” she wrote.
Ariana Grande just wanted to get a tattoo that said “7 Rings” in Japanese kanji, but the world had other plans. And by the world, I mean the ink was just too painful for Grande to sit through fully. This, in a nutshell, is the saga of Grande’s latest tattoo, which I’m calling, “7 Rings—No Wait, Actually, 7 Tiny Grills.”
It all started with the best intentions. Grande decided to commemorate her latest banger “7 Rings,” which iconically references The Sound of Music, with a new tattoo. And the title of the song scripted in Japanese kanji seemed like an easy way to go. Cut to a few hours later: Grande posts a now-deleted pic of the tattoo to Instagram, and Japanese fans notice something hilarious. The ink doesn’t actually translate to “7 Rings” but “Shichirin,” which means “small Japanese barbecue grill.”
Her fans, naturally, are losing it over this.
Grande owned up to the mistake in a series of since-deleted tweets. “Indeed, I left out ‘つの指’ which should have gone in between,” Grande tweeted. “It hurt like fuck n still looks tight. I wouldn’t have lasted one more symbol lmao. 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.”
And just to clarify, she confirmed she’s also a “huge fan of tiny BBQ grills.”
Ariana Grande released “7 Rings” and its accompanying music video on Friday, January 18. The song is currently number-one on Billboard‘s Hot 100, continuing the streak she started with “Thank U, Next” in November 2018. Her fifth studio album, also titled Thank U, Next drops Friday, February 8, and comes just months after her fourth record, Sweetener. She’ll tour both albums starting this summer—right after she headlines Coachella, of course.
Are you the not-so-proud owner of some regrettable ink? Well, welcome to the club. I have four (five, if you count the one on my back as two) tattoos from my late teens and early twenties that I could probably definitely do without. So, this year I set out to do just that: get them removed.
If you’ve heard anything about laser tattoo removal, it’s probably that it’s insanely painful. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard, “Doesn’t that hurt even more than actually getting the tattoos?” I’d be rich. (OK, I would have enough money to buy a medium iced coffee at Pret.) But while there’s plenty of info on what to consider before getting a tattoo (and pages on pages of enticing inspo), there still isn’t a whole lot of discussion surrounding the dark side of ink jobs: What happens if you grow to no longer love that little shooting star or random Latin phrase (ahem, see below)? I’m only about halfway through the process, but I’ve picked up plenty of tips along the way. So to do you all a solid, I put together a list of everything I’ve learned.
Here’s what you need to know about tattoo removal.
Hi, that’s me. Just getting my tatts lasered off.
1. Consider a doctor. I’d previously had one tattoo zapped at a spa (I was living in small-town Canada where there weren’t plastic surgery offices or dermatologists), where an aesthetician used an outdated heat laser that ended up burning and scarring my skin. This time around, I’m having treatments done by Dr. John F. Adams at the New York Dermatology Group, where everything is done under medical supervision. I suggest you find your own doctor by asking friends, editors (shameless plug), and even by stopping people that you see with removal in process—which, yes, I have done.
2. It will take months—if not a year or more. Tattoos don’t just disappear after a once-over with the laser. (I wish!) I’ve had six sessions, and I’d wager that I need about five more, despite the fact that my initial estimate was six to eight sessions. It takes a long time to complete because each time the tattoo is lasered, particles are broken down and digested by the body’s immune system. The regeneration period is up to eight weeks, and the next time you go, the laser breaks down new particles of pigment. And so on and so forth.
3. It’s expensive. If you have your procedures done by a doctor, the bill for each visit can run you hundreds of dollars. Brace yourself: The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) estimates the average cost per session at $463. But see point number one for why it’s worth it.
4. All ink can be taken out. Contrary to the old belief that light, colored ink was hard to remove, Dr. Adams assured me that all hues will now disappear. (FYI: The previous explanation was that, similar to laser hair removal, the laser would solely be attracted toward dark colors, like black.) With PicoSure technology, he says you can even get out yellows and greens, which were previously the most stubborn.
5. Get ready for needles. Mentally prepare for visits to consist of more than just a quick and easy laser moment. Mine have been taking about 45 minutes because we take before photos, clean the areas, inject them with lidocaine for freezing, laser them, ice them, and then bandage them. Oh, and sometimes a weird thing happens where I taste metal when the laser hits my skin. Dr. Adams says it’s a sensation that some people experience when the lidocaine is hit by the laser and that it’s totally normal…but also, I might be superhuman.
6. There’s pain afterward. And it doesn’t stop when you leave the office. I would advise that you budget for discomfort for about a week. For me, the sites blister and need to be covered in a salve and bandaged for a few days; then, they start to de-puff, scab, peel, and regenerate. There is good news though: The more treatments you have, the less aftercare there is. (Since there’s less ink reacting to the laser.)
7. You’ll need things like Aquaphor, bandages, and even clothes that don’t rest on the tattoo. Yes, I actually bought shirts that didn’t have material where my neck/back tattoo is. At first, I was cutting tags out, but when tagless cotton tees still made the spot hurt and itch, I figured keyhole backs were a good investment. If you have tattoos on your ribs or feet (and like to wear bras and shoes) it might be best to plan your sessions accordingly.
It also helps to apply a thin coating of antibiotic ointment or healing moisturizer three times a day, like from Aquaphor, Lubriderm, or Kiehl’s, for the first three days while the area is healing.
8. You could just lighten ink enough to go over it. If you don’t want to take your tattoos all the way off, you can simply lighten them enough to get some good cover-ups done. I have a friend who had a bird piece lightened enough to have a tattoo artist ink a light bulb over the top. I thought it was smart because it meant her new tattoo didn’t have to be heavy-handed (which I’m sure you think is very 2000).
9. Or take it all off, but there might be white patches or scars. If, like me, you want your ink completely removed, you should know that the skin that is left might not be flawless. I’m hoping that reading this post will prevent you from having a tattoo removal turn into scarring à la numero uno. And while the risks are nowhere near as big when you are treated by a medical professional, your skin pigment can be lightened.
10. But there’s another laser that can fix that. We are living in the future.
Game of Thrones may be ending next year, but thanks to some new body art, Emilia Clarke will be the Mother of Dragons for life.
The actor showed off some new ink on Instagram Thursday (September 20), which features three small black dragon shapes flying up her wrist toward her hand. “MOD 4 LYFE!!!!” she wrote, referring to her status as mom to her scaly TV children. “@dr_woo_ made sure this mamma ain’t NEVER forgetting her babies….” In the photo, she’s grinning ear to ear, and looks like she couldn’t be happier about her tiny tattoos.
Game of Thrones fans probably knew this tattoo was coming. In May, she told Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa that she was planning on getting a tattoo when the show was over. “I’m going to get a dragon right here kind of flying away,” she said, pointing at her wrist. “So I think that’s cool. A little kind of peace out.”
She further celebrated her departure from Westeros by chopping the “burnt-out Mother of Dragons split ends” off her hair. (So, in other words, a breakup cut, but with a TV show instead of a significant other.)
Clarke isn’t the only one to commemorate her turn on the show with a permanent souvenir. In 2016, onscreen sisters Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams got the numbers “07.08.09” tattooed on their forearms to commemorate the day they both found out they’d been cast on the series. Williams also has the phrase “no one” inked onto her body, likely referencing the time in season six when one of the Faceless Men, Jaqen H’ghar, told her, “A girl is no one.” For her part, Turner has a photo of a direwolf on her inner arm with the phrase, “The pack survives.”
Thanks to their epic body art, this “pack” will clearly survive long after the last episode airs.
It’s a fairly common practice these days for actors to commemorate wrapping a film or TV series by getting a tattoo inspired by their character or their time on set, and the Game of Thrones cast is no different. Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams already got matching tattoos in 2016 in honor of the day they both found out they’d been cast on the show, and Emilia Clarke recently shared her upcoming plans to get a dragon tattoo to pay tribute to Daenerys Targaryen. But it’s Turner’s newest piece of GoT–themed ink that has fans sounding the alarm and worrying she may have just spoiled the show’s ending.
Australian tattoo artist Lauren Winzer posted a photo on Instagram of Turner’s forearm inked with a new direwolf tattoo that says “the pack survives.” “Thank you so much for getting this from me @sophiet ! bad ass !” Winzer captioned the post, tagging Turner in the pic for good measure.
Though Winzer uploaded the photo last Saturday, it wasn’t until several days later that it caught the attention of GoT fans around the world. Beginning on Wednesday (June 13), the post was flooded with comments from fans anxiously wondering whether the tattoo implies the remaining members of the Stark family, whose emblem is the direwolf and which includes Turner’s character, Sansa Stark, will survive season eight, which doesn’t air until 2019. “Is this a spoiler?” one Instagram user commented, as countless others echoed the question. “A Time for Wolves! The Starklings survive!” another wrote.
A few Twitter users also speculated about the tattoo’s meaning, with one referencing an interview Turner gave E! News in 2016, shortly after she and Williams first got their matching ink. “With Thrones, we were like, if we make it all the way through, hopefully we could all get a matching wolf, but we don’t know if we’re going to make it, so Maisie and I were like, ‘Let’s get this before anyone kills us.'” So this new could tat just be the one Turner’s been dreaming of for years.
The words “the pack survives” have been a running theme throughout the series’ seven seasons. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” Sansa’s father Nedd said in season one, and Sansa herself repeated the line in the seventh season. Though Turner has shared she already knows Sansa’s ultimate fate, HBO is extremely protective of GoT spoilers. So it seems unlikely she’d be allowed to get the tattoo if it was a spoiler. Either way, we’ll have to wait until season eight premieres sometime next year to learn who survives the titular game of thrones.
