The 10 Worst Celebrity Tattoos, Superstar Ink that Truly Stinks

Tattoos are a lasting form of personal expression that can be powerful symbols of memories, emotion, and values. That’s true if they’re done right, but often, people make mistakes or simply take an unfortunate leap of faith. Lapses in judgment happen to the best of us. For whatever reason, celebrities forget that they’re highly scrutinized individuals and end up with embarrassing tattoos. Like, did they think no one would find out?

In general, we admire actors, athletes, musicians, and others who make ink mistakes. A person isn’t defined by their unfortunate tattoos! However, it is interesting to try and understand the motivations and life choices that got them to that point. Here are the 10 absolute worst celebrity tattoos.

10. Ed Sheeran – All of it

Inexplicably, people enjoy Ed Sheeran’s music. We wonder if fans feel the same affection for his tattoos. It’s hard to decide where to start here. The gecko?

Let’s focus on his giant chest-piece of a lion, which was a choice. This travesty was something people talked about a few years ago and Sheeran even faked fans out by sharing a picture of makeup covering the tattoo. This lead people to believe the tattoo was fake. Unfortunately, that’s not true.

9. Steve-O – A man who has got his own back

Television personality Steve-O is another individual with some very questionable tattoos. We’re sure he won’t mind us writing that because his entire shtick is shock and stupidity.

Of all of Steve-O’s tattoos, the giant portrait of himself on his back with the words: “Yeah dude, I rock,” has got to be the worst. Why? Who exactly is that for? There are so many questions. Do we really need answers? No.

8. Melanie Griffith – Stole his heart

When we get married, we hope it’s forever. Melanie Griffith was feeling some sort of way about marrying Antonio Banderas when she got this tattoo. The couple divorced in 2015, which was bad news for Griffith’s upper arm. Shortly after the split, she began the process of getting the tattoo removed.

A wise move! Griffith is an exceedingly talented actor and a respected philanthropist. It just proves that bad tattoos can happen to anyone!

7. Mark Wahlberg – Bad vibrations

Another celebrity who has had tattoos removed, but is still haunted by them is Mark Wahlberg. The “entertainer” had several tattoos removed and even invited his children along to encourage them to not consider getting them in the future. He’s giving the wrong advice. Tattoos are fantastic! He should warn his children not to get moronic ones as he did.

Photos of the tattoos are hard to come by now, but the Bob Marley tattoo could have been done with a little more love. He also had “In God, We Trust” and “Wahlberg” tattooed on his body.

6. Louis Tomlinson – It is not

One Direction alum, Louis Tomlinson has a large scripted sentiment across his chest. The singer’s chest says, “It is what it is.” If you can forgive the meaninglessness of the phrase, you can’t deny the actual hideousness of the font. Diehard fans will recognize it as the name of the band Tomlinson was in before One Direction.

5. Ariana Grande – 7 grills

Ariana Grande’s new tattoo “七輪” means Japanese style bbq grill, not 7 rings. ???? If you want to know about 七輪, just google “SHICHIRIN” pic.twitter.com/HuQM2EwI62

— *amo* (@hey__amo) January 30, 2019

Popstar Ariana Grande got a tattoo in 2019 that became a source of embarrassment. She got a tatt on her hand that she thought meant “7 Rings” in Japanese. Instead, the singer ended up with a tattoo that said “shichirin” which is a popular Japenese BBQ grill. Soon after Ariana discovered the mistake, she tried to have the tattoo fixed. Now, it says, “Japenese BBQ finger.” We wouldn’t necessarily call that fixed, but it could be much, much worse.

4. Adam Levine – Thank goodness he can’t see it

According to an Instagram post, it took six months for Maroon 5 singer, Adam Levine to get this monstrosity. Believe it or not, it looks better in this black and white photograph.

Here’s a look at it in color. This very big tattoo features a crosseyed mermaid with wings and holding a skull. Why not? In general, we’re fans of this traditional style of tattooing, but this is a mess.

3. Aaron Carter – We love Rihanna too, but…

Aaron Carter has a big tattoo of a Rihanna and Medusa hybrid that’s based on a GQ cover she did in 2013 tattooed on his cheek. There’s also the word “love” and a crescent moon on his face. We are all about Rihanna fandom, but this is a step too far.

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2. Presley Gerber

Rich, privileged, and angsty model, Presley Gerber is Cindy Crawford’s son and he feels so misunderstood. Poor guy! To ensure that we all got the message, he got the word “misunderstood” tattooed on his cheek in all caps.

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Look at this man. Who could understand him? He has many more tattoos we’d like to discuss, but we would absolutely hate to misinterpret them or this young man.

1. Kylie Jenner

Forbes bully and cosmetics mogul, Kylie Jenner got the word “sanity” tattooed on her right hip. Correction: it’s the phonetically spelled version of the word. Why? Who knows? Jenner got the tattoo in 2015 and shortly after, got the word “before” put in front of it so it now says “before sanity.” Okay.

There you have 10 of the very worst celebrity tattoos that are truly cringeworthy. Tattoos can be incredible works of art. In these cases, not even the brightness of fame could shed a good light.