Rihanna's Tattoo Typo: Lost in Translation

By John Mitchell Posted Aug 12th 2010 11:06AM

Whoops! Looks like Rihanna should have consulted your high school French teacher before getting her latest tattoo. The music superstar's newest ink reads "rebelle fleur," but someone forgot to tell the 'Rude Boy' singer that in French, adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify. To translate as "rebel flower," which we assume is what she intended, that tattoo should read "fleur rebelle."

But Rihanna isn't the first star to find herself stuck with a permanent stamp of linguistic inaccuracy. Just ask Hayden Panettiere and Coolio.

Panettiere got "Vivere senza rimipianti" -- Italian for "to live without regrets" -- tattooed down the left side of her back. However, she forgot to break out the dizionario Italiano (that's an Italian dictionary), because "rimipianti" (regrets) is correctly spelled "rimpianti." Somehow, an extra "I" found its way into Hayden's tattoo.

And as for Coolio ... well, he was just trying to be a nice guy. Doing his best to show his support for tour mates Insane Clown Posse, the rapper tattooed "Jugalo Cool" on his bicep as an homage to ICP's fans, who refer to themselves as "juggalos." For his part, Coolio told TMZ that the typo was on purpose and that he has no intention of fixing it.

We still think Rihanna takes the cake on this one, though. After all, her grammatical folly is right there on her neck for everyone to see.

Tags: coolio, Rihanna

Comments

(94)

Thursday 12 August

By tom

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just because she can sing does not mean she is bright...its a shame to think, all these young kids think that getting a tat on your neck is an in thing to do..on any part of your body you can cover it up when needed,you know like looking for a job ..on the neck it looks like trash...

By Iwanttosaythis

I don't think Rihanna is all that at all. Talk about overkill, I'm sick to death of her being crammed down our throats. She's a "planned" rebel, every step planned out before hand to seem spontaneous. A Robot. Beyounce too! It's really worse than hearing about Lindsey Lohan all the time. Every time you turn around there one of them is. It's too much! They aren't the only ones that can sing and dance and let's face it, it's all the same, over and over. Once interesting, now Boring!

By ShamalangadingDONG

Looks like she has to scrub the back of her neck too! or is that tattoo shading?

Friday 13 August

By Cedrick Rozon

actually, that is NOT a mistake on her tattoo, its a pun
(see, I actually am french, so I know these things :P )

Belle Fleur means pretty flower, so making it "Rebelle Fleur" actually makes it a double-entendre

it's actually a brilliant tattoo when you know enough french to understand it

Saturday 14 August

By Nobody

Tres bien Cedric.

By Larry

It's not the conventional way of doing it, but it IS acceptable in poetry sometimes to reverse the noun and adjective ('une rebelle fleur de grenadier').

By webuywatches.com

It surely memorable to her.

By slogans7

I've yet to meet a smart person that has tattoos.

By christian

okay, here goes...
Since Belle Fleur is a trademarked name (look it up, its on the internet in thousands of places) wouldn't it be understandable that she is doing a take on that? instead of putting Belle Feur on her neck, she changed it a little but it's still recognizable. If she had Fleur Rebelle it would lose the intent. I love how you haters are so quick to judge someone.

Well said Christian.

So lets see, more than half the population in the US can't speak english properly and you think they'll be bothered with , what did you say, "that in French, adjectives typically follow the nouns they modify"

Give me a break.

Sunday 15 August

By bsti

I wonder if that's her natural hair color. There's only one way to know for sure!

Wednesday 27 October

By leena

Typical. IQ in single digits.

Wednesday 01 December

By Kendra

I don't see why people are fussing about HER tattoo, it is HER tattoo, it's on HER body. Typo or not, it's not your place to judge..
& juggalos are stupid.
Just thought i'd share me two sense[:

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