Getting a tattoo of anything symbolic of a lover is risky business. Even though you feel very strongly about it at the time, the truth is you may not feel the same way about them forever. One woman is grappling with a dilemma, as her “kind, patient” boyfriend of five months is a great guy – but there’s one major complication. She said he has a giant tattoo of a woman’s face across his chest, which, at first, wasn’t an issue. But after stumbling across a photo on Facebook , she then realised the woman on his chest is the spitting image of his ex so she decided to confront him about it. To complicate matters further, the tattoo turned out to be of a former lover who passed away – and he got it as a tribute to her while in the throes of grief. Writing anonymously on Reddit, the woman explained how she’s struggling to deal with the woman’s face across his chest: “Like… it’s not a small tattoo. It basically starts at his collarbone and reaches his navel.
“It’s not only huge but really realistic and it’s the only tattoo he has. “When I first saw it I didn’t really process what I was looking at. “I thought it was maybe a fictional character or something so it wasn’t a big deal as I also have a lot of tattoos.” While initially brushing off the portrait tattoo, the Redditor explained that she stumbled across a picture on Facebook. She realised the illustration wasn’t of a fictional character at all – it was of his ex girlfriend. The post continued: “I told him about what I saw on Facebook and at this point he started bawling. “We stood in the entryway of his apartment for a few minutes until he regained composure and explained that they dated several years ago, for roughly four months. “To summarise, she died unexpectedly and in his grief-stricken state, he decided to commemorate her with a tattoo as he had always wanted one.”
She added that he told he was initially going to get something “subtle”, like a quote from his ex-girlfriend’s favourite book. But he told her the tattoo artist was an expert in portraits and convinced him to get one done. He confessed that his last two relationships have ended over the tattoo. She then asked fellow Reddit users for advice, as she doesn’t know if she can live with it: “I don’t know what to do. “I love him dearly and see a future with him but I don’t know if I can deal with seeing his ex-girlfriend’s (giant) face every time he takes off his shirt. “I know that sounds insensitive especially as she’s dead but it’s all I’ve been able to think about the past 24 hours. Can I get past this? Is this a dealbreaker?” To help her out, dozens of people waded in on the debate to give their advice. Many told the Reddit user to go easy on her grieving boyfriend. One wrote: “This is just kind of sad to be honest. “He’s not a bad guy, he just made a really bad grief-stricken decision.” Another said: “Completely not a deal breaker. “Don’t penalise him on it. Sounds like everything else about him is amazing.” Others completely understood why she might be having second thoughts about the relationship now. One wrote: “I’m going to be brutally honest here. Dead or not, you would not be wrong to end things because of it. This is one of those things you can either live with or you can’t” Meanwhile, several people urged her to dump him over it, baffled by his decision to get a tattoo of someone who he dated for four months, with one person writing “100% would dump”. What would you do in her situation? Let us know in the comments.