I let tattoo artist ink my face with surprise — now I’m ashamed

This modern-day scarlet letter stripped away her humanity.

A former exotic dancer shared the humiliating story of how a well-known California artist inked the worst thing possible on her face as a goof — and the shame and embarrassment that ensued. A video describing her dehumanizing ordeal currently has 1.9 million views on TikTok.

“I don’t tell people the story because it is extremely embarrassing for me but now that I am getting it removed, I will tell you,” the woman — who goes by @nygf on TikTok — recounted in the video. The caption snarked, “Best prank ever….petition to not let men do things anymore.”

She had uploaded the explainer in response after hordes of commenters asked why she’d gotten her facial tattoo removed, which she’d documented in a prior clip with 8.8 million views.

In the clip, broadcast from her bed post-op, the woman explained that she’d gotten the face ink when she was a “21 and dumb” dancer in the “YOLO phase of my life.”

“I was having a beach day with my friend and she told me her friend owned this tattoo shop in Laguna Beach,” the woman said, describing her impressionable 20-something self. “She said we should go, maybe hang out there and get some tattoos.”

She added, “When [the tattoo artist] asked what I wanted I said ‘YOLO, let’s do a face tattoo; who cares?’”

However, when the dancer asked the artist to emblazon crystals between her left ear and jaw, he reportedly told her “don’t do that” because it’s going to “look so stupid.”

“You should just trust me, you should do what I want. It’s going to come out good,” the rigid body artist had said, per the narrator’s TikTok testimony.

Due to her “extreme anxiety” and aversion to telling people no, the gal said she agreed to follow his lead.

“I was thinking he owns this shop, he’s a professional, and it’s a very nice shop,” reasoned the ink recipient. “His tattoos are usually extremely expensive and he’s doing it for free.”

That’s when ca-tat-strophe struck.

“So he tattoos my face and then I get to the mirror,” she said, before uploading a pic of the result. “As you can see, the look on my face… I was not f–king amused. I was not happy.”

The accompanying pic shows what appears to be a floral motif on her face.

The customer said she realized something was awry when the man started “dying laughing,” adding “something is hilarious to this man.”

When she asked what her cheeky ink symbolized, the tattoo artist explained that it was a symbol of a one-dollar bill — an apparent homage to her career as a dancer.

“Do you get the joke?” the mortified gal snarked of the literal tramp stamp. “Because I’m a stripper, he branded me [with a one-dollar note] for the rest of my life on my face.”

She continued, “So for the rest of the seven years I have had this on my face, anytime someone would ask me what my tattoo is, I lie because it is so embarrassing and humiliating.”

Thankfully, the ex-stripper, who is now a mom, has since gotten the modern-day scarlet letter stripped away via a painful laser procedure — which she detailed in the aforementioned clip.

However, she hopes people can use her ordeal as a PSA on the importance of sticking up for oneself.

“Moral of the story? Do you let me pressure you into doing things you do not want to do,” the courageous woman declared. “Stand up for yourself and speak up for yourself, otherwise you’re going to look like me.”

In a similar tattoo horror story from May, a mom was devastated after a $315 tattoo of her late grandma ended up looking more like Rod Stewart.

Meanwhile, in 2019, a UK prankster incurred the wrath of his wife after getting an unflattering thigh tattoo of his paramour snoring on an airplane.