Michigan Tattoo artist reveals the biggest spelling mistake she has made in her career: “They’ll live with that tattoo for the rest of their life”

Tattoo artist Sydney Mulvaney, who works out of Saginaw, Michigan, has spent the last 12 years perfecting her craft, but she is the first to admit that her early days were filled with some pretty stressful learning experiences. With over a decade of professional experience now, the 31-year-old has turned to TikTok to share the realities of the industry with her followers under the handle @sydneytattoos, VT reported.

While she is now a seasoned expert, she recently opened up about the immense pressure that comes with permanently marking someone’s skin. It is a heavy responsibility because you are essentially leaving a permanent legacy on another person, and as Sydney put it, “they’ll live with that tattoo for the rest of their life.”

One of the most intense moments from her apprenticeship involved a client who wanted a simple word on her wrist. Because Sydney was still learning the ropes and had already experienced the panic of a few mistakes, she decided to be extra cautious. She asked the client to write the word down herself to ensure there was no confusion. The client wanted the word Smurf, but things went sideways quickly during the process. Sydney explained, “I saw her paper, and it looked like she wrote ‘S M I R F’ instead of ‘S M U R F’, so I showed her six different fonts with the word Smurf spelled S M I R F, and she didn’t notice it until she picked a font, and I was almost done tattooing her.”

The realization did not hit until the very end of the session

Sydney recalled, “I dot the I, and she goes, ‘Why did you dot the U?’ and I was like, ‘that is an I’, and she said, ‘Smurf is spelled with a U’, but the stencil had an I on it too – that was so awful.” It is the kind of situation that would make any artist feel sick to their stomach. Sydney reflected on that feeling, noting that when you mess up a piece, “it feels like your gut is going to fall out of your body – it is the worst feeling ever when you mess up a tattoo.”

Another major blunder from her early years involved a large piece on a friend. The client wanted a tramp stamp that read, “Separate thyself from the pack.” It was a massive piece covering the entire lower back, and because Sydney was still an apprentice, the client likely paid very little, perhaps around $50, or maybe even nothing at all. Everything seemed fine until the shop posted photos of the finished work on Facebook.

The public reaction was immediate and harsh. Sydney said, “Then, everybody in the comments is like, ‘separate is spelled wrong’, oh my god, so she came back in and because I spelled it ‘s e p E r a t e’, instead of ‘s e p A r a t e’, we ended up turning the e into an a, but it never looks as it would if you just did it right the first time.” It is a tough lesson to learn, especially when the mistake is as large as a full lower back tattoo. She admitted that in the beginning, you might not focus enough on the spelling until the reality sets in that the mistake is permanent.

Sydney noted that these experiences taught her that being a professional artist carries a significant weight. You have to understand that every time a client looks at their ink, they are thinking of the artist who put it there, especially if the work is flawed. As she bluntly put it, “they’ll live with that tattoo for the rest of their life, and they’ll think of you every time they look at it, especially if it’s f—ed up.”

These days, Sydney has a much more rigorous process for preventing such errors. She makes sure that every single client reviews the spelling of their design multiple times before the needle even touches their skin. She has turned the process into a strict habit to ensure total accuracy. “When I show them the design, I say double check the spelling, and then when I put on the stencil, I say no, double check that spelling again, because I draw pictures for a living, okay, I’m not a rocket scientist.”

It is a smart, professional approach that keeps both the artist and the client protected from the kind of stress that comes with a permanent spelling error. Her transparency about these early struggles provides a rare look at the human side of the tattoo industry where even the most experienced professionals had to start somewhere and learn the hard way.