When Cai Morgan walked out of the tattoo parlour delighted with his Welsh tribute to his family’s mantra, he immediately started taking photos of it for friends and relatives.
But his sister Lowri spotted one problem with the tattoo – it was not spelt correctly.
Cai, 24, from Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, wanted Ymlaen – meaning forward – but instead got Ymaeln, which is not a word at all.
Rather than feeling embarrassed, Cai has embraced the error and said his family found it “hilarious”.
Cai went to a tattoo parlour in Brighton, where he has lived since 2019.
He had always wanted a tattoo in the Welsh language similar to his father, who died last year.
“My dad was a very patriotic Welsh man with tattoos, like the Welsh flag, all over his back,” he said.
“I’ve just been waiting for an opportunity and it sprung up.”
Cai was speaking to his mum on the phone when she reminded him about the family mantra.
“Ymlaen is what we live by,” said Cai, who then decided to take his chance while walking past a tattoo shop.
He went into the shop to book his appointment and give the tattoo artist the spelling of the word.
“I think where I went wrong on the actual day was I chose the font, the sizing and with the guy not knowing Welsh, it’s not his fault,” he said.
“He did the stencil and I approved, I think I became blind to it because I had seen the word many times.”
Delighted with his new tattoo, Cai started taking photos to show to his friends and family.
“I was thinking ‘this is sick’. It’s Celtic, it’s bold at the sides like I wanted it. But it wasn’t until I forwarded it to my sister that she started texting me saying ‘it’s not spelt right Cai’,” he said.
Fortunately, Cai found the misspelling hilarious.
“I FaceTimed her and we barely could talk because we were laughing too much,” he said.
The mishap was posted on TikTok by his sister and it has since gone viral which left him feeling “very surprised”.
The tattoo artist offered a free removal to Cai after it had fully healed, but he has decided to stick with it.
“It’s symbolic now. It’s reminder that you can mess up but you can always move forward,” he said.