- A Redditor went viral when he asked the site for advice on how to cover a "shrimps is bugs" tattoo.
- Members of the subreddit r/TattooDesigns loved the body art and insisted he keep it.
A man who asked Reddit for advice on how to cover his "dumb" tattoo was overwhelmed with comments insisting he keep it, accidentally becoming a meme in the process, and inspiring others to get the same body art.
On May 17, Lewis Murray, a 25-year-old from Southern California, posted a photo in the subreddit r/TattooDesigns which showed the words "shrimps is bugs" tattooed on his leg. He asked users for suggestions on how to cover it up.
Cover up suggestions?
by u/Lewbular in TattooDesigns
"I need ideas for a horizontal design for this dumb tattoo I got above my knee when I was 19," the post read.
The post received over 11,800 upvotes, and 2,000 comments, but the reaction wasn't what Murray expected, he told Insider in an email exchange. Instead of ideas on how to remove the random tattoo, he was inundated with responses who begged him to keep it intact.
"This may be the best tattoo I've ever seen. It would be a travesty to get it covered. Now, what you should do is get a frame tattoo around it," one follower wrote in a top comment that received over 4,600 likes.
"Honestly I would just add more tattoos around it so it looks more natural. It'll blend in with the rest of them. I fuckin love this tattoo. Shrimps is bugs," a fellow redditor wrote and received over 2,100 likes.
Murray told Insider he couldn't fully remember the backstory of the tattoo, but it started as an inside joke with his friends.
"I think my roommate said it once and then it just escalated into this thing we'd say to each other all the time," he said. "I was getting a different tattoo at Old Rose in Temecula with my friend Austin, and he dared me to get 'shrimps is bugs' as well."
It made his pals laugh at the time so he considered it a success, but years later, he was ready to get rid of it. He hadn't anticipated the strong reaction it would receive online. "I did not expect that at all," he told Insider. "It's weird to go viral for something I'm embarrassed about."
Enthusiasm about the tattoo spiraled. On May 17, another Reddit user created the group r/ShrimpsIsBugs which currently has over 1,700 members who post tattoo re-designs based on the original. One user, who goes by u/burnin8t0r, received over 260 likes when they uploaded a photo that appeared to show they had gotten a version of 'shrimps is bugs' tattooed on their arm.
Hello I did this to myself and I have no regerts
by u/burnin8t0r in ShrimpsIsBugs
Murray told Insider tattoos are often considered "deep and meaningful" and the silliness of his own is probably what made it so popular. "I suppose it's a little reminder that things shouldn't be so serious," he said.
As for his own "shrimps is bugs" tattoo, he said he's since changed his mind about covering it up. "I think I'm just going to get tattoos around it," he told Insider. "It's got a whole different meaning to me now that all this has happened so I would feel bad covering it up at this point."
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.