A woman getting inked for the first time has been left with a grammatically incorrect tattoo after the artist made a spelling mistake.
The error, which was spotted by the woman’s friend, was shared on the social media platform Reddit.
The tattoo is a bird design, accompanied by a phrase scrawled underneath.
It reads: “In time, this to shall pass”, but the artist should have written “in time, this too shall pass”.
‘To’, which the artist mistakenly wrote, is a preposition that can be used in a variety of ways, such as indicating a direction of movement or place of arrival. For example, ‘I’m going to bed’.
‘To’ can also be used to indicate a relationship between words, like having something that belongs ‘to’ you.
However ‘too’, which the artist should have written, is used as a synonym for ‘besides,’ ‘in addition,’ ‘also,’ or ‘as well’.
So in the case of “in time, this too (which means ‘also’) shall pass”, ‘too’ would be the correct form of the word.
‘Too’ can also be used to show that something is excessive, like if a grammar lesson is ‘too hard’ to understand.
Users in the comments quickly reacted to the tattoo nightmare, with one commenting “I would simply be: upset” and another replying with a tongue-in-cheek “I would be to”.
Another user added: “I'm trying to resist the urge to chase this person down with my blue pencil and make editorial corrections.”
Whilst some users were kinder about the artist’s handiwork, writing “the artwork and lettering is nice - shame about the spelling.”
Others were unimpressed by not only the artist’s grammar skills, but their handwriting too, pointing out that one of the ‘I’s in the phrase had not been dotted.
One user said: “Never mind the fact that the "too" is missing an "o", that handwriting is atrocious”.
