A happily married man who wanted to pay homage to his wife with a special tattoo was left red-faced after accidentally branding himself a love rat.
Romantic Jimmy Ames thought getting the Chinese symbol for ‘love’ inked onto his arm would be a fitting way to show his devotion to his other half.
But he hadn’t realised that, combined with another tattoo he already had, he would be left instead with the symbols for a love rat.
Jimmy, 37, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was inspired to get the tattoo after the vicar at his wedding to insurance adviser Michaela Ames preached about the Chinese symbol for love and what it represented.
He didn’t realise at the time that a tattoo he already had underneath it would change its meaning.
"The tattoos came a few years apart. The first tattoo was the rat, my Chinese birth year, and I had that done in 2007,” Jimmy explained.
"I'd gone on a lads' holiday to Miami and we decided it would be fun to get tattoos, we all had various tattoos done and I had the year of the rat.
"When we got married in 2017 the vicar was Chinese and he did a speech about Chinese writing.
"He was trying to describe the word for 'love' in Chinese and the picture and it was all about having a roof and two people under the roof.
"We really liked what he said so we decided to get matching tattoos of the Chinese word for 'love'.
"My wife got hers on her wrist absolutely fine and I went and got mine on my forearm.”
It was only weeks after the business support manager had the £40 dedication added to his arm that the penny dropped and Jimmy realised his tattoo now read 'love rat'.
"As I was showing it off to my mum weeks later I looked at it and thought 'I've just realised I've got 'love rat' written down my forearm',” he said.
"I was a bit unsure because at no point did anyone who was Chinese do the tattoos whatsoever so I did question as to whether it did actually say 'love rat'.
But Jimmy then asked a Chinese colleague who confirmed that it did.
Although being branded a 'love rat' wasn't ideal, he and Michaela, 34, now see the funny side.
"The rat tattoo's a little bit blurred because it's a lot older but if you see it close up you can see it's a picture of a rat and you have to imagine it's got a rat's tail, two front teeth and two eyes,” Jimmy said.
"When the penny dropped, I just thought it was hilarious.
"I don't always take life too seriously and remember thinking 'I'm stuck with it, what's the point in panicking? I might as well just laugh it off'.
"My wife was quick to point out that she's got tattoos of our kids that are quite meaningful and lovely and I've gone and got that.
"I said 'well what am I going to do with it? I can't cut my arm off'.”
Jimmy, who is dad to Stella Ames, five, and eight-week-old Fred Ames, said there were advantages to the mishap however.
"In some ways I think Michaela's happy because she realises I'm never going to meet another woman while I've got 'love rat' written down my arm, because it probably doesn't send the right message.
"I've got mates that find it hilarious, people just find it a joke and because it's in Chinese no-one really knows what it is so I get away with it in that sense."
