50 People Who Wanted A Cool Tattoo But Ended Up With A Permanent Mistake

There are a lot of things to consider when getting a tattoo. The design, the placement, the style, the artist – it's not an easy decision for most people. But some tattoos can be, like Bob Ross would say, happy little accidents: you get them at 2 a.m. during a trip with your friends and later have to live with the consequences.

According to one survey, people most often get tribal tattoos, hearts, roses, stars, crosses, and skulls. The size matters too: 63% of the tattooed people the pollers surveyed said they regret getting a tattoo smaller than the palm of their hand.

The medical laser technician and tattoo artist with whom we got in touch, Lacey Cormier, has been tattooing people for many years, and recently also got into tattoo removal. You might think that removing tattoos is unethical for a tattoo artist, but, on the contrary – she's familiar with the ins and outs of tattoos better than other removal technicians.

Lacey says that most of the ink she removes are impulse tattoos. "Tattoos when away on vacation and if someone passes away," she adds. "I have removed quite a few memorial tattoos. These tattoos are often not well planned out and impede on potentially larger tattoos in the future on that body part."

Not all tattoos are made equal: some can be far harder to remove than others. "There are lots of factors that play into a successful removal," Lacey admits. The most obvious criterion is the color, of course. Black and grey tattoos will probably be easier to remove than colorful ones.

But what some people might not know is that the location of the tattoo also plays a big part in whether it'll be hard to remove. And it's not about how even the surface of the body part is. "Tattoos closer to your heart will remove faster because of the blood circulation," Lacey explains. 

She goes into more detail about the technical side of the removal process. "The laser breaks the ink into microscopic granules and your white blood cells then carry the ink away. So, where there's more blood circulation, the quicker the white blood cells will take the particles away compared to an arm or leg tattoo," the tattoo removal technician explains.

When people decide they no longer want their tattoos, removal is not the only way to go. Many talented artists can cover up an old, unwanted tattoo and create something stunning. Lacey says it depends on the person and what result they're looking for. Those who want a blank slate usually go for removal, and tattoo lovers might choose to cover them up.

"I do recommend people invest in [themselves], whether that is complete removal of their tattoo or to have a few sessions to lighten the tattoo to make it easier to cover with another," Lacey says. "Tattoos and tattoo removal are expensive but I wouldn't cheap out on it. This is your body and we only get one, so invest in what makes sense for you."

Lacey also emphasizes that tattoo removal requires patience. "The removal of a tattoo take can take months or even years to achieve the desired result," she says. "You need to allow the skin to fully heal in between laser sessions and or getting tattooed over the old tattoo. Unfortunately, there is no fast track or shortcuts when it comes to removing your unwanted tattoos."

In the end, who's to decide whether a tattoo is a fail or not? If the owner likes it, then that's that! In a previous interview for Bored Panda, the editor of Things & Ink magazine Alice Snape said that the only kind of failed tattoos should be spelling mistakes. "Surely, a tattoo can only really be a fail if the person who has the tattoo on their skin hates it," she told us. But other than that, it's really a matter of preference.

Good tattoos, bad tattoos – beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. So, Pandas, you decide: how many real tattoo fails did you see in this list? Upvote the best of the worst to the top and let us know in the comments which ones stuck in your mind. And, if you have a story about an unfortunate tattoo yourself, share it with us in the comments!