Rule Of Thumb: If You Accidentally Tattoo Your Finger, Turn It Into A Ruler! How A Tattoo Artist Turned An Accidental Finger Tattoo Into An Actual Ruler
By Sidra Lackey
Shae Bae, a tattoo artist from San Diego also known as @shae_tatts on TikTok, has a video that recently went viral for turning an accidental finger tattoo into a “useful” everyday tool: a ruler, New York Post reports in “I turned my accidental tattoo into something ‘useful’ — people say it’s ‘genius.’ ”
The accidental finger tattoo started as a small dot made on Shae Bae’s pointer finger while she was tattooing a mandala tattoo on her own thigh. Shae Bae documented herself doing the self-tattoo via a video she shared on TikTok. Around the 25 second mark as she tattoos her thigh, she exclaims, “Oww!! I just got my finger” when she accidentally tattoos her finger in the process of trying to tattoo her thigh.
In another video she shared with TikTok, Shae Bae has randomly decided to turn the dot into a ruler and titles it: ‘Accidental tattoo turned into something useful.’ As of now the video has over 998k likes. Shae Bae says matter of factly in the video, “I’m going to put 2 more dots and then I’ll have like inches on my finger.” She adds, “It’s just gonna be dots though. It’s gonna be kinda cute.” She even pulls out a ruler, takes measurements and then draws two more dots she is about to tattoo on herself, with a pen. She captions the video before she starts intentionally tattooing her finger: ‘My finger is going to become a mini ruler.’ She says seemingly sarcastically, “I’m going to use this so much.” She tattoos her finger quickly and afterwards her caption reads: ‘What did I just do?’ but she is smiling nevertheless. One of her hashtags for the video is #dumbtattoo so Shae Bae doesn’t seem to take the ruler tattoo too seriously.
TikTok users mostly seem to love the ruler tattoo idea and how helpful it is. One user commented they have a similar tattoo: “I have 3 inches tattooed on my index finger. It was because I was a hairdresser for 11 years, but it comes in handy a lot.” Another TikTok user commented with a more cheeky comment: “No guy will ever be able to lie to you again! Genius!” However another user was not impressed with the ruler tattoo and wrote: “I’m 100% sure, nearly EVERY tattoo artist has this spot.” Shae Bae replied honestly: “I’ve had a few, but normally they fade.” And a second unimpressed TikTok user said: “I mean most likely if it was just one tiny dot it would’ve just fallen off anyway. Could’ve just left it.” Shae Bae fired back, “You’re right, I could’ve just left it, but where’s the fun in that?”
Tattoo artists, what do you think of Shae Bae’s accidental tattoo turned into a ruler tattoo? Would you have thought to turn the tiny dot into another tattoo? If so, what of? Or would you just have left the original dot?