Danbury Woman’s Bad Tattoo Goes From Beastly to Beautiful

It's been a few months since we posted our call for "most regrettable tattoo." About two weeks later, voting started and wow, you gave us a lot to pick from. On March 1, our winner, Naveen from Danbury, was crowned most regrettable tattoo and in this case, the title paid off. She received a $500 gift card to Danbury Tattoo & Piercing to cover up her tattoo.

Now, how did Naveen even end up on our "worst tattoo" list?

Naveen's tattoo was originally meant to be a symbol of strength. "When I was 18 years old, I freshly emerged out of an abusive relationship, and wanted something to signify the freedom I felt, the power I felt, and me emerging as a stronger more knowledgeable person. I decided on an amazing black panther ripping out of my shoulder blade. What I got is more akin to IDK a deformed gargoyle? A malformed dog? I have no idea what it actually looks like, but since there were no highlighting colors, no contrast, and it was all black on black, it was definitely not the majestic creature I felt like, and feel like to this day.....Please help."

Luckily for Naveen, her deformed gargoyle was about to disappear forever. Naveen won by a landslide, with 10,934 more votes than our second place winner, Joe Fregosi's Wrestlers.

Naveen got to work with Danbury Tattoo's owner, Eric Tymula. Eric hand drew Naveen's entire tattoo on her back, making her vision come alive onto her skin. Only the lettering was stenciled as this requires further precision and accuracy.

Naveen opted for a baby sperm whale about to fall to its death, along with a bowl of petunias also aware of the situation- "oh no, not again." The tattoo is in reference to Naveen's favorite novel, Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As the petunias and whale plummet towards the planet Magrathea, "this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more." This part of the story teaches us a lesson on the meaning of life, telling us that "life has no inherent meaning."

Naveen goes even further into the story of her tattoo, telling us that "...later on in the series, it is revealed that the petunias actually are the reincarnated spirit of a creature that is killed by the protagonist Arthur Dent every time it is reincarnated. This particular time, the spirit was murdered by Dent when he pushed the button for the infinite improbability drive and called them into existence, only for them to fall immediately to their demise on the planet of Magrathea below."

The end result? Pure Bliss. "I saw the whale in the mirror, and I swear I want to cry, it looks so amazing and it is SO freaking adorable!!!" We're happy you love it Naveen!

And that's case closed on 2019's Tattoo Redo.