Woman Gets Taylor Swift Lyrics Tattoo, Then She Sees the Spelling

When Liz Corleone, 32, from Northwest Arkansas, planned a sentimental tattoo experience with her husband, she wasn’t prepared for where it would end up.

Corleone and her husband wanted tattoos in each other’s handwriting, and opted for a lyric from Taylor Swift‘s sultry track “Guilty as Sin?” from The Tortured Poets Department.

The lyric in question—”What if he’s written ‘mine’ on my upper thigh?”—resonated with Corleone, and the idea was set.

“We’d been thinking about getting tattoos in each other’s handwriting for a bit,” Corleone told Newsweek. “I know the song isn’t necessarily about ‘the one,’ but that lyric felt cheeky and had a little sex appeal.”

The couple captured the journey to get the tattoo in an Instagram reel that has now gained attention, but for an unusual reason as the tattoo didn’t turn out as expected.

In a now-viral video, viewers see the moment before the inking, with a stencil reading what was supposed to be “Mine” in cursive. But after the tattoo session, nestled under plastic wrap and denim, the finished tattoo seemed to spell something quite different: “Mime.”

“I didn’t notice the cursive misspelling until I was driving away,” Corleone said. “We were running late to dinner, got bandaged up, and hopped in the car. Then I looked at the video I took and thought, ‘Does that say Mime?'”

She wasn’t alone. The internet quickly chimed in, with many viewers offering theories, jokes, and even font analysis. Some questioned whether it was an artist’s misinterpretation, while others suggested ways to “fix” the inking.

“Kind of iconic actually,” said viewer Kaelidance. While Imalil_lost wrote: “To be fair an n in cursive looks like a m.”

“Cute but that doesn’t look like the stencil I fear the tattoo artist owes u a fix,” said Purplegardenlover.

Despite the unexpected “mime” spelling, Corleone isn’t upset. “Do I think the artist intentionally messed it up? Absolutely not,” she said. “They were great, we had awesome conversation. I just wish they followed the stencil a little more closely.”

Tattoos have risen in popularity over the decades, with The Pew Research Center finding, as of 2023, some 32 per cent of Americans have at least one tattoo, with 22 percent having more than one. And among 35-year-old Swift’s generation—millennials—tattoo prevalence is even higher, with 46 percent of those aged 30 to 49 saying they have at least one tattoo.

For Corleone, the error has instead turned into a point of humor for the couple. “I’ve got a great new nickname out of it,” she laughed. “These things don’t phase me. I’ve chuckled at myself countless times just thinking about the story.”

As the clip gained traction online, amassing nearly 4 million views since being shared at the end of May, Corleone’s husband also chimed in, clarifying that he did, in fact, write “mine” in a comment that has over 15,000 likes.

While it might not be the tattoo the couple planned, the result has become a fun and arguably more memorable moment for the pair.

“Of course I couldn’t plan for the misspelling, but I think life’s funniest moments come from the unplanned,” said Corleone. “After seeing the cursive, I was even more excited to share because I thought it might make other folks laugh, too—especially my fellow Swifties!”

This isn’t the first time a tattoo gone wrong has gained viral attention. Last week one millennial said she had “never regretted anything more” after having her eyebrows microbladed.

While a dyslexic teen had a quote tattooed only to realize he had made a mistake in the spelling. Thankfully he saw the funny side, and so did the internet as it gained viral attention on Reddit.