Watch CBS News

Ariana Grande's tattoo says "BBQ Grill" in Japanese instead of "7 rings"

In celebration of her new hit single, "7 Rings," pop star Ariana Grande got a new tattoo on the palm of her hand, paying homage to the song and its music video. The star said she had the phrase "7 rings" tattooed in Kanji, a Japanese style of writing. But it actually spells "BBQ Grill," as some of Grande's Japanese fans quickly pointed out.

The two characters separately mean seven (七) and ring (輪), but together "七輪" means Shichirin, the name for a small charcoal grill. Amazon offers several 七輪 for sale. The combined characters roughly translate to "7 wheels" — not "7 rings."

Looks like Grande's tattoo was well-meaning, but she ended up with a grill on her hand.

An image of the tattoo was shared on the official Ariana Grande Japan Twitter page. In the caption of the photo, Grande writes, in Japanese, "Everybody thinks this is not my hand, but it really is my hand." It wasn't the strange-looking hand some fans had a problem with, it was the tattoo fail.

Many fans replied to the tweet with corrections and photos of Shichirins

While the photo remains on the star's Japanese Twitter account, it was removed from her Instagram, Kotaku reports. Grande's caption stated that the characters on her hand were an abbreviation of "7 rings." In the video for the single, the title of the song is written in both Kanji and English.

screen-shot-2019-01-30-at-12-10-50-pm.png
In the music video for "7 Rings," the title is written in both English and Japanese. Ariana Grande/Vevo

Despite the epic "7 rings" tattoo fail, the song has been extremely successful. "7 Rings" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

According to Nielsen Music, "7 Rings" also debuted at number one on the Streaming Songs chart with 85.3 million U.S. streams in the week ending January 24. That's the second-biggest streaming week ever for a song by a female artist. The biggest week went to another Grande hit, "thank u, next," which drew 93.8 million streams, Billboard reports.

The success of the song speaks to Grande's global popularity. She may have gotten some flack on Twitter, but many people tweeted words of support for the pop princess. "I'm more than happy [with the tattoo] because it's kanji," one fan wrote in Japanese.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.