DUOLINGO offers free do-overs for inaccurate foreign language tattoos

High up on the list of things never to do in life is get a tattoo of a cool foreign word or phrase without being 100-percent sure it’s not mistranslated. That was the premise of a two-week social campaign conducted by language-learning app Duolingo to capitalize on celebrations of World Tattoo Day last month (March 2022). Anyone who wanted the peace of mind of knowing that the foreign expression inked upon their body didn’t in fact mean something ridiculous or rude could take a photo of the questionable tattoo, post it to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #TattooDuoOver, and the brand’s language experts would reply with either good or bad news (photos could also be submitted via private email for those who didn’t want to attract notoriety by posting publicly). Owners of the most disastrous mistranslations became eligible for a do-over re-inking by top tattooists at a big-name parlor in Paris, France. The goal of the campaign was to demonstrate how easy it is to mess up in a foreign language without the help of reliable learning tools, such as those incorporated within the Duolingo app.