A happily-married man has been left red-faced after he accidentally branded himself a ‘love rat’ after getting a tattoo of a Chinese character.
Father-of-two Jimmy Ames, 37, from Ipswich, Suffolk, wanted to get the Chinese symbol for ‘love’ inked on his arm to commemorate his 2017 wedding to his wife Michaela Ames, 34.
However, he failed to foresee the potential pitfalls of placing the ‘love’ symbol above an old Chinese zodiac tattoo for ‘rat’ on his forearm.
Doting husband Jimmy Ames, 37, from Ipswich, Suffolk, wanted to get the Chinese symbol for ‘love’ inked on his arm to commemorate his wedding to his wife Michaela Ames, 34
The doting husband, who is dad to Stella, five, and eight-week-old Fred, had the ‘rat’ tattoo inked on his arm 10 years ago while on a lads’ holiday in Miami, as it represents the year of the rat – his Chinese zodiac symbol.
It was only weeks after the business support manager had the new £40 dedication added to his arm that the penny dropped and Jimmy realised his tattoo now reads ‘love rat’.
Jimmy laughed off his tattoo fail despite his wife of four-years, insurance claims adviser Michaela, being initially unimpressed.
However the pair now chuckle about it with Jimmy quipping it’s a great ice breaker down at the pub.
Jimmy said: ‘When the penny dropped I just thought it was hilarious. I’ve not got the symbol for “love rat” but I do have “love” and “rat” written down my arm.
However, he failed to foresee the potential pitfalls of placing the ‘love’ symbol above an old Chinese zodiac tattoo for ‘rat’ on his forearm, which now read: ‘Love rat’
The father-of-two, who is dad to Stella, five, and eight-week-old Fred, had the ‘rat’ tattoo inked on his arm 10 years ago while on a lads’ holiday in Miami, as it represents the year of the rat – his Chinese zodiac symbol
‘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”.’
‘My wife and my mum were more disappointed in me than angry, and we all know that’s a lot worse.
‘They’ve come round to it now, it’s just a joke. It’s a good one for an icebreaker at parties or in the pub.’
He said he was inspired to get the inking after the vicar at his wedding preached about the Chinese symbol for love and what it represented.
Jimmy said: ‘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 said he was inspired to get the romantic inking after the vicar at his wedding preached about the Chinese symbol for love and what it represented
‘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.
‘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”‘.
It was only weeks after the business support manager had the new £40 dedication added to his arm that the penny dropped and Jimmy realised his tattoo now reads ‘love rat’
Despite his wife Michaela being initially unimpressed, the pair now chuckle about it saying it’s a great ice breaker down at the pub
‘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 I worked with a Chinese fella who confirmed I had “love rat” written down my arm.
‘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 although being branded a ‘love rat’ isn’t ideal, that he and his wife have found the funny side of it.
‘Those two tattoos are the only ones that mean anything, I’ve got a tribal pattern on my shoulder but that’s it.’ he said.
‘My wife’s got very lovely meaningful tattoos and I’ve got ‘love rat’.
‘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.’