Ariana Grande is known for having more than 60 tattoos, and while many fans recognize some of them instantly, a few carry meanings that are less obvious. One of them, however, ended up meaning something very different from what she intended.
The performer has collected a wide range of small designs across her body, especially on her hands and fingers. Among them are tributes linked to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Mac Miller’s dog Myron, and her time working on Wicked. She also has matching ink with Cynthia Erivo that says ‘For Good’, as well as a Glinda illustration inspired by early imagery from L. Frank Baum’s books.
Some of Grande’s tattoos also nod to the wider world of The Wizard of Oz. One of the most notable is a Glinda illustration inspired by early imagery from L. Frank Baum’s books, which she shared in 2023 as a tribute to her character in the upcoming film adaptation.
Speaking to Allure in 2023, Grande explained how she approaches getting new tattoos.
“When they come to me, I just get them,” the actor said of the ink in a 2023 interview with Allure. “This one I knew I wanted to get for a very long time… I waited forever to fill up this hand. And I thought, ‘I’m gonna wait for the right thing to come along,’ and yeah, that felt very right.”
Still, one finger tattoo became memorable for an entirely different reason after the finished result did not reflect what she thought it said.
Grande’s ‘7 Rings’ tattoo was meant to honor her song of the same name, which focuses on friendship and luxury. In January 2019, she shared the new tattoo on Instagram, intending it to celebrate her chart-topping single.
The issue was tied to her decision to have the tattoo written in Japanese. Because the language is traditionally structured differently from English, the intended meaning did not carry over in the way she expected.
The characters she had tattooed translated to ‘shichirin’ — meaning a small charcoal BBQ grill — rather than ‘7 Rings’. She later acknowledged in now-deleted tweets that she had left out characters due to the pain of the tattoo session.
She later attempted to fix the translation by adding another kanji character.
But the update still did not produce the intended result.
Reports claimed she had spoken with a ‘Japanese tutor’, who suggested adding kanji above and between the existing symbols.
That adjustment would have made the phrase read as ‘7 finger circle’, which was reportedly the closest available equivalent to ‘rings’.
Instead, Grande placed the added symbol below the character for 7.
As a result, the tattoo reportedly translated vertically to ‘Japanese BBQ Finger’.
More recently, Grande has drawn attention for comments about what comes next in her career, which has lasted well over 10 years. Her work on the Wicked film adaptation alongside Cynthia Erivo has marked a significant transition into film acting, with the first installment released in November 2024 and the sequel scheduled for November 2025.
The discussion followed major news during her North American tour, when she told fans she planned to step back from public life.
She later told Entertainment Weekly that the decision was not driven by concern over how she was coping, but by something she had considered carefully.
“My fans were worried that negativity was ruining things for me. But, I just have to say, that could not be more the opposite,” she said.
“This can be and will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life,” she added of her tour.
A representative for the singer told PEOPLE she was going to finish her tour ‘healthily and happily’ before stepping away, which includes her stepping down from the West End production of Sunday in the Park With George.