It’s easier to change an Olivia Rodrigo lyric than it is to change a tattoo of it — and that’s exactly what the singer vowed to do for fan Grace Flemming.
Flemming, 20, first heard Rodrigo’s song “Hope Ur OK” in 2021, when the three-time Grammy-winning singer released it on her album “Sour.” She immediately “knew” she wanted a tattoo of one of the lyrics, “address the letters to the holes in my butterfly wings,” the Colorado resident tells TODAY.com.
She finally got the ink last month on her waist, only to later discover that it incorrectly read “butterwings” instead of "butterfly wings."
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Flemming posted a TikTok about it April 20, encouraging people to double check spellings before getting tattoos. Flemming is emotional in the video that now has more than a million views. In the caption, she asks Rodrigo to change the lyric so her tattoo is correct.
"I’m literally crying over my nails right now,” she says in the viral video.
The “Vampire” singer left a comment May 6 saying Flemming's tattoo was the new lyric.
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“HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH OMG THIS IS THE NEW LYRIC IM CHANGING IT TO BUTTERWINGS,” Rodrigo wrote.
Flemming says she can’t believe Rodrigo saw the video, let alone responded. Now, she doesn’t know if she'll take up the tattoo artist's offer to fix the tattoo so it matches the original lyric.
“Not changing it definitely makes it more unique and special. I kind of want to keep it, but also want to get the right lyrics. Maybe I’ll keep this one, and get the right lyrics somewhere else,” she says.
The lyric is her favorite of Rodrigo's, Flemming says. She has long admired how caterpillars turn into butterflies.
“Everybody already has their own wounds or holes. So I take the (line), ‘Address the letters to the holes of my butterfly wings,’ (to say) if somebody’s gonna say something mean, they can say it to me. But, it’s just gonna go through me. It’s gonna go through that hole,” she says.
She toyed around with actually getting the tattoo for three years. Once her mind was made up, though, it only took her a week to plan the design.
Flemming asked her tattoo artist to stitch together words Rodrigo had previously written in letters and emails sent to fans so the tattoo would appear to be in the singer's handwriting.
“I have loved Olivia since 2015. It was so exciting to have a piece of my favorite artist on me,” she says.
Flemming admits she didn’t fully read the text when the tattoo artist showed her the stencil.
“I’m such a person who’s like, ‘I want to see the finished product. Just do it. It looks great. I can’t wait,’” she says.
She left the parlor joyful and unaware of the error. Then, she then sent a picture to her boyfriend, who immediately noticed the typo.
“The little bubbles were typing for so long. And I was like, ‘What is he going to say? Does he think it looks bad? What is it?'” she says. He finally responded, “Did you take out the 'fly'?”
Flemming says she “just stared at his text,” thinking, "There is no way." She went to sleep and woke up the next day assuming it was just a dream, she says.
But it wasn't a dream. In the month since getting the tattoo, Flemming says she has encountered an array of reactions.
People have called her “stupid” for not actually reading the stencil. She shrugs those comments off, saying most people she encounters don’t even notice the mistake until she points it out.
Her mom, who does not like any of her five tattoos, has used the mix-up to bolster her case of why she “shouldn’t get tattoos.”
She's learned to embrace the error.
“Sometimes I get a little angry about it. But it’s so funny. I tell random strangers who are like, ‘I like your tattoo,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, well let me show you,” she says.
“It’s kind of become such a big thing where I’m kind of like, ‘Oh, this is a really good mistake.’”
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