Tattoos are a personal choice.
As a result, many people choose tattoos which have a special meaning to them, such as the name of their beloved, or an image or symbol sacred to them
It's also easy for people to judge what others choose to have inked on their body.
With certain types of tattoos almost instantly resulting in the immediate cringes of others.
"Which type of tattoo makes you cringe the most?"
Leave Calvin Alone!
"Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes peeing on stuff."
"Except the one from Hot Rod with one stream of urine going on the TV set and one going on the FM radio with an AM radio safely dry in the middle on a magic carpet."- alanladdismydad
What Does That Say About Them...
"A defendant in the courtroom I clerked in during law school had 'homicide' tattooed on his face, over his eyebrow."
"Not a great look."- Silidon
Love At First Sight... One Hopes!
"Couple tattoos like portraits or names."
"Mostly when they proudly tell you it’s because they’ve been together for 5 months and just know they stay together forever."- Gingeraffe25
Quickly Outdated...
"Knew of a guy once who had 'DUBSTEP' tattooed on his chest in VERY VERY large letters."
"He also insisted that dubstep was the future of music and was here to stay."- Shadesmctuba
Choose Your Words Carefully...
"Tattoos that are gifts from you to someone else."
"For example 'for your birthday, I got your birth date tattooed on me!'"
"And tattoos with spelling errors."
"Example 'were you really there if you think you were their?'"- AlexatRF21
Easy To Make Assumptions
"Nothing says 'I've been to prison for cooking Meth in my trailer' like a Joker neck or face tattoo."- Celer_Umbra
To Infinity And Beyond...
"Former tattoo artist here, and it has to be infinity symbols."
"ESPECIALLY when they want them to be 'uNiQuE', so they have you spend three hours drawing up different ways of cramming little McKayzleigh and Brackxston’s names, birthdates, birth weights, blood types, and favorite ice cream flavors in there."
"Fine, I’ll find a way."
"I can work for my money."
'"Oh, and can it also have a thin blue line in there for my husband?'"
"Sure, lady."
“And maybe some birds breaking off of it, cause my meemaw loves birds!”
"Sighhhh. Yeah, okay."
“'And can you do it on the side of my finger in white ink?'”
"F*ck you, get out."
"Bonus points on these if they walk in holding a monogrammed Yeti tumbler full of the alcohol they’re trying to smuggle in."- rumpertumpskins
Hickey's Are So Passé
"Lips on the neck."
"I get it, you're a gangster with an attitude problem and probably want to fight."- LooseLeaf24
No One Has Time To Read Anymore
"Sayings, especially ones that span multiple limbs/areas."
"I was in the Army with a guy from Texas that thought he was hard as woodpecker lips."
"Had ‘Cowboy The F*ck Up’ tattooed across his forearms."
"Ostensibly so if he put his fists up to fight you, you would read it and, I don’t know, be scared or something?"
"He never got in any fights that I know of."
" But due to the size he wanted it and sh*tty planning, one arm said COWBOY THE and the other arm simply read F*CK UP."
"And he immediately became known as Cowboy, the f*ck-up."- RistaRicky
Anyone considering getting a tattoo should always remember that they're all but permanent.
As far too many people are sadly stuck with a reminder of a past bad decision which greets them every time they look in a mirror.
And often on display for the rest of the world to see as well.
High school is strange time for most of us. We think we know everything, we want to be cool and idolized, and we conform to fit in, even if conforming really means doing something stupid, like smoking.
Still, as high schoolers, we thought all of this was cool. We did all sorts of stupid or inappropriate things, and either justified them, or didn’t even realize they needed to be justified.
However, we all grow up. Things we thought were cool as high schoolers are absolutely cringeworthy to us now. Redditors are only too eager to share what those things are.
It all started when Redditor crypto_wut asked:
“What is cool in the eyes of most high schoolers but is actually cringe?”
Uselessness Of High School Hierarchy
"Being popular for the wrong reasons. As soon as you graduate that starts over. Better not to rely on being popular and prepare."
– Hamfiter
"I remember this guy in high school who had a fearsome reputation. Him and his cousins would show up at parties, literally say, "Do you know who I am?" and attack people. People were terrified, and rightfully so, people were getting severely hurt."
"Anyways, I was in 11th grade, he was in 12th."
"Once he graduated high school, he would come swing by the high school often, smoke out front with his "friend's" and talk about how it was so great to graduate, he didn't have to get up early or do anything, etc. At first, everybody was like, "Cool, lucky!" and then it was like, "Heh...let's go back to class...""
– lazarus870
"I'm Real Grown Up!"
"Telling people how mature you are"
– pineapplewin
"When I was in high school there were some girls in one of my freshman/sophomore classes bragging about how mature they were because they had boyfriends who were older and would invite them to college parties. Like...no, your boyfriends are losers and you're just naïve.
– ArcticFox46
Teach Yourself To Be Kind
"Being rude to teachers. Every person who I know who was rebellious in school cringes hard when they think about the sh*t they said to teachers."
– WowThisIsAwkward_
"Being jerks to the teacher who just tries to do his\her job."
– Greedy-Ad-189
Not JUST A Prank
""It's just a prank bro" no, you're being an a**hole"
– bzaroworld
"I like to use the pie in the face test. Does it cause the person more inconvenience than a pie in the face, under normal circumstances? If yes, then it's not a prank, it's a crime."
– indrada90
Feel What You Feel
"Worrying what other people think. The concept of “cool” in the first place."
"My brother and I (in our early 30s) were watching a group of teenagers trying so hard to put on this cool, unemotional facade at Disneyland while everyone else around them just enjoyed themselves and we were laughing to ourselves that teenagers are so afraid of displaying emotion or passion and nobody else cares. But we all went through it, and we all reach the realization that it’s more fun to just enjoy ourselves."
– Objective-Ad5620
Louder and Louder
"Being loud and obnoxious everywhere they go. Like dude no one thinks you’re or your friends are cool over there yelling penis because you think it’s funny."
– Activ_RefRigeRatoR
"I own a store kids frequent and I have had to tell them more than once to shush. The volume got so loud once an actual PAYING customer was uncomfortable."
– CalliopeKB
Be Who You Are...
"Doing things to gain other peoples approval.."
"Seriously, when you grow up and stop giving a f**k about other peoples opinions, life is so much better"
– EndlesslyUnfinished
...And Not Who You Aren't
"Being 'edgy' and 'offensive' just for the sake of it."
"Yeah, we get it. You think that mocking dead people or posting racist/sexist stuff on social media makes you a tough edgelord not to be f**ked with. No, it just makes you look like a complete tryhard."
– AlysonMazzoni
They Are
"Most high schoolers."
– Bacontoad
"Yup. The most awkward demographic that uses grunts to communicate."
– Pimp_Daddy_Patty
"I was gonna say “the word cringe” but yours’ better"
– jamieleeght
Faking It
"Pretending to have some type of disorder, like that makes them special. Like some how everyone has multiple personalities now, one of the rarest disorders of it's kind and everyone and their cousin suffers from it."
– Top-Sprinkles6929
"Faking mental disorders and saying “OMG I HAVE DEPRESSION I AM SO QUIRKY” IN THAT EXACT SENTENCE"
– w0rms1nMyEy3S
That last one is pretty sickening. It’s a good thing high schoolers grow out of it.
People Explain Which Things They Find Incredibly Cringeworthy That Others Don't Seem To Mind
I had to stop watching talent shows years ago because while I got to see some really enjoyable acts—especially singers, of which there are a seemingly endless number—I grew sick and tired of how scripted everything felt.
For one thing, I hate overt sentimentalty because it can ring very false, and that's how I've felt whenever I've had to sit through any sob stories. Everyone has a sob story.
The music swells and immediately we'll hear about someone's cancer diagnosis or the fact they lost their house due to foreclosure or that their father died and that afterward they found bodies in his shed and learned he was a notorious serial killer...
Okay, that last one might have been made up. But my point stands.
People shared their thoughts with us after Redditor TheCheeto4 asked the online community:
"What is something that you find incredibly cringe, but you think other people wouldn't?"
"You just reminded me..."
"You just reminded me of those Facebook posts that give instructions to prove who is/isn't a "real friend", always ask you to share afterwards. Like a copy-paste friendship test."
Ovesper0
I never bother with those. I always ignore them and I'm okay with that.
"People exaggerating..."
"People exaggerating how quirky, different or relatable they are."
[deleted]
You just described every manic pixie dream girl in Bushwick.
"People singing..."
"People singing at me. I have no idea what to do and feel cringe the entire time. Some people love just having people sing to them though."
FierceDragoon
Many people feel super awkward when this happens... especially when it happens in a restaurant... on their birthday.
"Starting a Go Fund Me..."
"Starting a Go Fund Me the second news of a tragedy gets out. There was an accident by me, and there were two competing GFMs fighting over who was closer to the victim."
coolbeansfordays
They do that so they can skiff the funds. People have no shame.
"I couldn't fathom..."
"Public vlogs. I couldn't fathom walking around the city holding a camcorder on a stick and talking to myself."
[deleted]
I hate them and don't understand why people would watch some rando walking around, going about his day. No thank you.
"The judges..."
"The judges crying on those talent shows on TV."
14012387504
Sob stories always increase your chances of entering and lasting longer on those shows.
"I love..."
"I love that unspoken thing where talent show judges act all surprised that the ugly person actually has a great voice!"
nardpuncher
The Susan Boyle effect (and she wasn't even all that great to begin with, but it's the perfect example).
"Dating profiles..."
"Dating profiles and bios. I just can’t not feel weird about advertising my self to randos."
User Deleted
Always awkward. Even worse when you meet someone interesting and they are nothing like their profile at all.
"Turning on music/singing loudly in public places. I always listen to music in my headphones."
VladSolopov
I would never. It's the height of rudeness.
"If someone is going..."
"Filming yourself doing acts of kindness. If someone is going to do something nice for me, and they film me and post that online I’ll be pissed."
damnedpancakes
It's everywhere. Social media is a pain.
Remember the last time you cringed to some of these? You probably do. It's the worst, isn't it?
Have some cringeworthy moments of your own to share? Tell us more in the comments below!
You don't want to think about it, but it haunts you at three in the morning, the way embarrassing, awkward memories often do.
You sit there and you can't stop cringing because dear Lord, it was awful and how in the world did you even survive that moment without immediately dying from embarrassment?!
Well, you did, and it sucks to be you. Just kidding. Hopefully you've learned to be a bit kinder to yourself – and to laugh at yourself, too!
People told us all about the embarrassing moments that they experienced after Redditor No-Bag7478 asked the online community,
"What was the most embarrassing moment of your life?"
"Luckily for me..."
"I have a few but the worst, as I've said on here before, was when a colleague gave me a lift home from work as my wife was busy. When he dropped me off, I went into 'wife dropping me off' default mode, and leaned in for a goodbye kiss. Luckily for me, he wasn't looking and either didn't notice, or had an existential crisis and never mentioned it."
"The walk to my front door was spent bemoaning the fact I had been born."
SoapyRibnaut
I mean... I can't blame you. My face would be red as a beet!
"When I was in the 7th grade..."
"When I was in the 7th grade I got assigned a project with the most popular girl in school. This was my chance to become her best friend. I invited her over to my house and I thought we could chill before jumping into the project."
"I thought the best way to impress her would be to show her the dance I made to a song from the new J.Lo album. She sat on the couch while I performed."
"We did not become best friends."
SahmiSahm
This gave me a good laugh. Don't be too hard on yourself. At that age, kids lack a lot of self awareness.
"I was enlisting in the Navy..."
"I was enlisting in the Navy. I had to go for a drug test. The lady comes in the bathroom with you and watches you pee. I pulled down my pants and I had gotten my period bad; it was all over. I was mortified, I asked the lady if she had a pad or tampon, and she said no. I rolled up some toilet paper and stuck it in my underwear."
"The next thing we had to do was strip down to our bras and underwear (15 females in the room) and do stretches, and bends, and duck walk. I had on bloody underwear with toilet paper stuffed in them. Everyone saw. Everyone thought I was gross. I wanted to die."
lukriel
Why did they think it would be better for you if you just free-bled everywhere?! I am angry on your behalf.
"I asked my cousin..."
"I asked my cousin, who I hadn't seen in two decades, how long he and his girlfriend had been together. He informed me that it was his daughter."
kobblejagar
At that point just never speak to them again.
"I wander in..."
"I was rehired at a job after 6 years and most people still there remembered me and were happy to see me back. Friday rolls around and someone goes "Dave...come by the break room!"
"I wander in and there's this cake at the end of table and everyone is standing there. So I you say "You guys!" and blow out the candle ,not noticing it said Happy Birthday Julie."
The68Guns
Not hard to relight a candle and to be fair, you could always play this off as a joke!
"Some kid and I..."
"Some kid and I agreed to wear tuxedos to the last day of middle school. I was too young/stupid to realize he wasn’t serious, so I convinced my mom to front the cost of renting a tuxedo which I spent the next several weeks paying off."
"I won an academic award that year too, so not only did I show up in a tuxedo, I had to go up in front of the whole school in the gym to accept the award."
thisguyhaschickens
I realise it was embarrassing to you at the time but I feel that‘s pretty cool of you. The other kid should be embarrassed for standing you up. You got an award and accepted it in style.
"The time my high school history teacher..."
"The time my high school history teacher called me and the girl I was dating into her office, asked us about the nature of our relationship, and then told us we were cousins and she was our aunt. And that we should not be dating. We didn't know."
ThadisJones
I think there might be more to this story, no?
"Last week..."
"Last week when I accidentally sent an butt photo to my family's group chat for my grandmother's funeral."
[deleted]
Hey, look on the bright side: You took their minds off their grief!
"Love is bliss."
"During the early days of courting, we had just finished having sex. We were all sweaty and had those post-coital munchies. We went into the kitchen to prepare food."
"Our relationship was at that wonderful moment where everything was still new but we were gaining intimate trust. We had reached that huge milestone of farting in front of each other. We’d grown comfortable doing so and when we entered the kitchen in our sweaty glow I decided to let rip."
"I farted. Quite a small fart but with such pressure (I wanted to make her laugh) that some poop flew out my nekkid butt and landed on the kitchen door."
"I looked at the poo."
"She looked at the poo."
"I closed the kitchen door in her face and grabbed the kitchen roll. Utterly horrified. Hearing her howling with laughter the other side of the door. Me with my shame."
"It’s been 20 years and my wife reminds me of that shart almost every month. Love is bliss."
coglanuk
This is gold and I love that you two are still together!
"I pissed myself..."
"I pissed myself during my first grade play."
PlusDay2950
Stage fright, huh? Don't worry, it's quite common.
You live and you learn. As you get older, it becomes much easier to laugh at yourself. If you're not at that stage yet, you'll get there. You'll see that a lot of these moments are much more meaningless as time moves on and you acquire new experiences.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Picture this: you're laying in bed, peacefully drifting off to sleep, when suddenly your brain reminds you of that time you embarrassed yourself in third grade. Suddenly, you're wide away and cringing as you reply that moment in your head.
Maybe that moment was when you were trying to impress a crush, or maybe you tried to crack a joke that flopped.
Well, we wanted to know what those embarrassing and absolutely cringeworthy moments were so we can have a good laugh about it.
Redditor LexiDuck asked:
"What is the cringiest thing you've done?"
Let's get into some second hand embarrassment.
Laugh out loud.
"Said 'lolololol' out loud. It was like the sad, pointless mating call of a prehistoric nerd."
"Using this face I hope."
"I say lmao out loud and make my friends die inside."
Everyone knew they were lying.
"Told some female co workers that I spent 2 weeks in jail…. They knew I was lying. I knew I was lying. Why did I do that."
"Idk, have you tried staying up all night thinking about it?"
Teenage emo phase.
"All of these were when I was a teenager:"
- "Went into a barbers with a picture of an emo dude I found on the internet, and I told them I wanted my hair done like that. They told me my hair already looked like that."
- "Made a really stupid sexist joke in front of a girl I sort of liked. She definitely didn't find it funny."
- "Walked around in a T-shirt that had a huge American flag with a hammer and sickle in place of the stars. It wasn't for political reasons, I didn't even know about politics at the time, I just thought it was cool."
- "Following on from #3, I used to wear some ridiculous outfits to college that were radically different every day. One day it was a fedora with a white dress shirt and black waistcoat, the next it was bright red skinny jeans with a leather jacket and huge sunglasses."
"I know this is all kinda cringe but I love you so much lol this is all the best honestly ❤️ we all had emo hair at one point and they were the absolute best days ever."
"Everything but #2 makes me think you're cool."
Paralyzing cringe.
"I was at my friends house and went to get something from the lower part of the fridge. As I squatted down I farted so loud that I got paralyzed for about 5 seconds."
"I don't know if this classifies as cringe or just straight up embarrassing."
- iCalet
"First time in a while I've laughed out loud from a comment."
"When I was a stupid teenager, at Christmas, my uncle was poor. He gave me my Christmas present and having heard this joke elsewhere and thinking it clever I said 'thank you, I'll have the rest later.' The room went silent, I tried to explain but I made it worse. That was about 25 years ago and I still cringe at the memory!"
"Aw damn poor uncle."
Bluetooth headphones.
"Definitely answered someone while they were talking on a Bluetooth. Numerous times."
"That's on them for wearing a Bluetooth device, especially if it was within the last 10 years."
"As a former cashier, folks on the Bluetooth would piss me off all the time. I'd ask how they want their things bagged, or say hello, and they'd hold up a hand to their head and say 'I'm not talking to you, hold on.'"
All for a crush.
"Joined a dance performance at school because my crush was in the group. She dropped out a day before the performance and I still had to go on."
"The song was that car wash song from shark tale. I still hate hearing it and remembering this."
Not the more typical response.
"I was at target and just got done purchasing stuff and said 'you're welcome' to a target cashier after she said 'have a nice day.'"
"For some reason, I laughed so hard at this! I guess because I can imagine myself doing the same thing."
"I hate when somebody says something like 'ok sir you're all set,' and my dumbass will be like 'thanks, you too,' lol."
"I was at a gig and it was being recorded by the venue owner. Really cool place, local brews from all around America, original music and local art on the walls for sale. Super cool crowd."
"I hate even remembering this and I never play the CD for this specific reason. I took a gulp of this delicious cider and said into the mic (too loud and in a weird announcer voice) 'Liquid Confidence!!' No one laughed. There were like 60+ ppl there. I'm so furggin dumbbbb."
"Well you made me laugh so you have that going for you."
People Break Down The Best Purchases They've Ever Made | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Miles high.
"I just realized this is 2nd most cringe. First most cringe was when I was first starting to travel for work. I was talking to my boss (25 yrs my senior, also a VP of our division) and his counterpart (30 yrs my senior, also a VP) about how I aspire to get enough southwest points to be an A-List member, and I said 'When I get on the A-List, I'll finally be in the mile-high club. Or, what is it? The 10,000 mile high club?'"
"They both looked super uncomfortable and I, a social idiot, was like 'What is it called?' Neither of them had the heart to tell me how cringe that was to say. Saddest part is, I never even made onto the A-List. The closest I got was 2 flights short."
Laughing at him, not with him.
"In elementary school I was sitting at the front of the school bus preparing to go home and naturally got bored so I started playing around. I did the invisible lasso thing where you pretend to swing a rope over your head and 'catch' a nearby person before slowly reeling them in. Not only did the person look at me like I was insane, but because I was naïve I assumed that the laughing classmates and other kids were laughing along with me and not at me."
"So when they said, 'Do it again! Do it again!' I listened and did as they said repeatedly, smiling like an idiot the entire time and thinking I was the coolest person on the bus. It wasn't until years later that it hit me what really went on since the memory had almost vanished from my mind by then. Now it's one that visits me at random every time I think of the invisible lasso thing."
Pranks.
"When I was about 9 years old, I saw a group of older neighborhood boys playing nearby. I ran over to them and then pretended to fall down and hurt my leg. When I was laying on the ground, pretending to wallow in pain, they came over to see I was ok. I screamed "GOTCHA" and then ran away. I still cringe when I think about it. To this day, I have no idea why I did that."
"Nah that's not cringe, you totally got them."
"It wasn't so much what I did, I was more the target of a cruel prank by my friends."
"When we were teenagers we were all in our mate's house when his parents were away, and we had a few drinks. There was a girl in school I really liked and my friends encouraged me to phone her and tell her. The lad whose house it was said I could use the house phone upstairs for privacy (this was before we all had mobile phones) so I did."
"But they then put the downstairs phone on speakerphone but on mute and listened in as I told her how I felt about her, asked her out, and got rejected."
- kitjen
"I'm a waitress and a few years back I had a party of 9 or 10 stop by in really nice dress clothes. Upon greeting the table in my perky table voice I said, 'Hi everyone how are we all doing? You all look great, what are we celebrating today?!' They replied they had just gotten back from a funeral. I was so embarrassed but they were very nice!"
"I did the same exact thing when I was waiting! They were mostly wearing brown and gray suits on a Sunday afternoon, so I thought it was either from some church event or a wedding."
Not the best move.
"Told my wife she had thunder thighs."
"I told her this the second day we knew each other too… we were just talking and I immediately regretted it. Luckily things worked out but damn, what a stupid thing to say to a girl you like when you barely know them."
"I once pretended I was Abraham Lincoln's reincarnation while trying to impress a girl."
"I was chatting to this girl who liked history and the American Civil War so I pretended I used to be Abraham Lincoln."
"Someone started having a seizure during a game of charades and I thought it they were trying to act it out and I started yelling 'Freak out! Spazzing! Twitching!' When his mom yelled at me to stop telling me he was having a seizure. I just about died from embarrassment."
- Womper1
"Why didn't the mom help him out sooner, what the f*ck. You're not in the wrong."
- aew360
"Watching Serendipity (romcom about destiny) and messaged my crush 'if you're watching this too its meant to be..'. Yeah I know.. I then received a call from her! ... It was her and her friends laughing at me down the phone."
"Great movie though."
"High school girlfriend had just dumped me and I got a fresh haircut one day so I sped down the highway to pass by her school bus and flex my cut and thought maybe it would make her change her mind lol, found out later that same day that she left me for another guy. God it's so terrible it hurts just thinking about it years later."
We are sorry to laugh at everyone's expense here, but a lot of us will find these are pretty common embarrassing moments. Maybe we don't need to cringe at them as much since a lot of people have done this before. It's pretty normal at this point!
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