Woman reveals mask quote as ‘dumbest tattoo’ she’s ever gotten: ‘Not anti-mask, I promise’

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A woman has shared the poorly timed mask tattoo that she got just days before a large portion of the United States went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in a now-viral TikTok video.

Leah Holland, 25, from Kentucky, revealed her tattoo, which is located on her forearm and reminds her to be herself and “radically refuse to wear a mask”, after another TikTok encouraged users to share “the dumbest tattoo that you’ve ever gotten”.

In her response video, Holland prefaced by stating: “Ok, I’m just going to go ahead and let you guys know that I won. So I got this tattoo, I’ve wanted it for a couple years, and basically it means, like, being true to yourself and real and not pretending to be something you’re not.

“I got this 4 March 2020 and it says: ‘Courageously and radically refuse to wear a mask.”

Holland concluded the video, which has been viewed more than 1.8m times, with an ironic thumbs-up.

“I could NOT have had worse timing,” she captioned the video, adding: “PS I’m not anti-mask I promise.”

On TikTok, the clip has prompted a range of amused reactions, with many agreeing that the tattoo could not have come at a worse time considering the mask mandates put in place all over the world to protect from the virus, and the outspoken anti-maskers that have cropped up as a result.

“March 2020? That didn’t just age bad, that curdled faster than milk in the summer sun,” one person commented.

Another said: “I’m so sorry that the context of your tattoo literally changed overnight after you got it.”

“You won. You absolutely won. I’m so sorry,” someone else wrote.

Others offered Holland suggestions for making the tattoo more acceptable, such as adding: “Except during Covid” underneath, or adding a small illustration of the two-mask emoji that is used to indicate the theatre or the arts.

According to Holland, what she actually did was wear sweaters to cover her arms out of mortification.

“I spent the entire summer wearing cardigans so that could not be misconstrued,” she told BuzzFeed. “For most of the summer, I was mortified.”

However, the 25-year-old now sees the humour in the situation, and is happy that others have gotten amusement out of it as well.

“It’s just a funny story now. I can laugh about it,” she said. “I think it’s funny when other people are like: ‘I laughed so hard.’ I’m laughing about it too!”