Much like the Constitution, tattoos are meant to stand the test of time. That’s why for tattoo-seekers it has always been of paramount importance to make sure—really, really sure—that Chinese character you’re about to spend a lifetime with really means what you think it means. Quadruple check it; don’t leave it to Google translate. And if your tattoo (permanent or temporary) is about to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, you might want to have a friend proofread it too. Unfortunately for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, her full torso tattoo of the Constitution punctuated with the signature of John Hancock on the cover of next month’s Rolling Stone magazine didn’t get a thorough enough edit. The problem?
The Constitution’s not in Mandarin, but mistakes happen in the tattoo parlor in any language. Or as Politico’s Dylan Byers points out this could have been Rolling Stone’s reasoning: “It was on purpose. On ‘Veep,’ Dreyfus plays a bumbling Vice President – of course she’d get her tattoo of the constitution wrong!” But, the editors at Rolling Stone missed that opportunity telling Poynter: “The Declaration of the Independence is on the other side but we couldn’t fit in all the signatures.”
