Arsenal star Theo Walcott’s tattoo on Hindu God faces flak for spelling gaffe

Arsenal FC forward Theo Walcott drew flak on Twitter for a spelling gaffe on his new tattoo inspired by a Hindu God

football Updated: Aug 10, 2017 12:12 IST

HT Correspondent

Hindustan Times, Mumbai

Theo Walcott faced flak on Twitter for a spelling error in his tattoo.(Twitter/theowalcott)

Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott recently posted a picture on Twitter showing off his new tattoo that reads ‘Om Nam Shavay’, and he is getting schooled by fans from India for his troubles.

Walcott’s accompanying text with the image of the tattoo on his back reads – “Open your heart, shed fear, hate or envy, to experience everlasting joy & happiness #NewTattoo”.

Open your heart, shed fear, hate or envy, to experience everlasting joy & happiness #NewTattoo pic.twitter.com/R0Qksj4vk5
— Theo Walcott (@theowalcott) August 9, 2017

While that may have been his interpretation of the holy phrase, fans made it a point to show him the right direction. Many lashed out at the grammatical errors, while some broke the mantra down for the England winger. Others just decided to have fun with it.

This Twitter user even took the effort of editing the tattoo for the Arsenal star with an image that presents allegedly correct version.

Your tattoo guy kinda messed up, y'know.
This is what it should have been. pic.twitter.com/V6OwGFLHD2
— Tanuj Baru (@barucracy) August 9, 2017

This user further added that the last three letters of Walcott’s tattoo that should read ‘Shivaya’ and not ‘Shavay’ because the latter translates to ‘dead body’. He did go onto complement the intentions of the footballer, while lamenting the execution in his next tweet.

You've got incorrect letters. Last 3 letters mean dead body. Need to fix it. Fix it as shown in this photo.
— Ranjith (@ranjithrajan) August 9, 2017

Another user literally typed out the mantra for Walcott, saving him the trouble of actually having to type it out in case he chooses to rectify.

It means "I take your name Lord Shiva" is a soul cleansing mantra. The typo is grammatical
hould be ॐ नमः शिवाय
vertically

ॐ
न
मः
शि
वा
य
— Aditya (@Brewkenstein) August 9, 2017

This fan believes that Walcott should have at least consulted with an Indian Arsenal fan before getting the tattoo and in order to avoid the mistake.

Yeah. It looks cool and all, but the breaking of the alphabets is just wrong. @theowalcott should have checked with an Indian Gooner first.
— Sherwin Mascarenhas (@Sherwinator_27) August 9, 2017

This fan decided focus on football. Responding to a tweet describing Shiva as the creator and destroyer, whom the mantra is directly linked to, he decided to break it down to footballing terms. He named Arsenal’s playmaker Mesut Ozil as the creator and new signing Sead Kolasinac as the destroyer.

No, Özil is the creator and Kolasinac is the destroyer
— Quazi (@K2theAzzy) August 9, 2017

There were a few who saw the funnier side of Walcott’s new tattoo.

Incredible tattoo.. Agle saal kanwar yatra pe bhi aa jana, bhole @theowalcott .. Lord Shiva is India's biggest international superstar..:) pic.twitter.com/C82kBUmzY8
— Paresh Rawal fn (@Babu_Bhaiyaa) August 9, 2017