How to Spell Relief for Misspelled Tattoo — L-a-w-s-u-i-t

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 29, 1999 | by Stephen Goode, | Barbara Root

Lee Williams of Roseville, Mich., proudly left the tattoo parlor that he had just visited sporting the word villian on his right forearm. V-i-l-l-i-a-n? Yes ... Williams, 23, didn't notice that he'd misspelled the more sinister choice that he wanted to display on his flesh, villain, until a less-spelling-impaired friend made fun of him for it.

The now deflated Williams is suing Eternal Tattoos for $25,000 to cover the damage and humiliation the misspelled word has caused him: $1,900 for surgery to remove the offending tattoo and the rest as compensation for a "scar as long as his forearm" that the surgery left behind, his lawyer, Paul Clark, told Associated Press.

Williams and employees at Eternal Tattoo debated about how to spell villain when the Wayne State University student and former Marine got the tattoo in 1996. Williams, according to Eternal Tattoo owner Terry Welker, agreed on villian. When a customer agrees to a misspelling, Welker says, "that falls back on them, not the artist."