--- title: Charmander Tattoo Goes Viral on Reddit description: "stupid" tattoo of Pokemon Charmander goes viral on Reddit and Imgur and user did while drunk on Xanax canonical: https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-17T16:07:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:51.417Z og:title: This Pokémon Tattoo Is So Bad It Has Become a Meme og:description: "stupid" tattoo of Pokemon Charmander goes viral on Reddit and Imgur and user did while drunk on Xanax og:url: https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Pokémon Tattoo Is So Bad It Has Become a Meme twitter:description: "stupid" tattoo of Pokemon Charmander goes viral on Reddit and Imgur and user did while drunk on Xanax twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Pokémon Tattoo Is So Bad It Has Become a Meme  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 17, 2015 4:07 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 17, 2015 4:07 PM UTC A tattoo of Pokémon character Charmander that fans say looks nothing like the character has been going viral on Reddit, inspiring memes and earning the nickname “S\*\*\*\*y Charmander.” This is what happens when you drunkenly tattoo Charmander on yourself [pic.twitter.com/S5USovtLqg](http://t.co/S5USovtLqg) — The Independent (@Independent) [April 17, 2015](https://twitter.com/Independent/status/589078371059007488?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) Redditor Yllwsnow2 uploaded the image on April 14 with the caption “My friend was drunk and on Xanax when he decided to tattoo a black face Charmander with no experience or artistic ability. The flame saves it.” The picture racked up nearly 2.5 million views over the next two days, [according to](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shitty-charmander?hootPostID=abdc32f1dac41e8e5401dc4e1c8c6cfc) a timeline by KnowYourMeme, an online encyclopedia about memes and trending topics. The illustration now has its own subreddit [“/r/shartmander,”](http://www.reddit.com/r/shartmander) and the [photo-sharing site](http://imgur.com/blog/2015/04/15/that-escalated-quickly/) Imgur has rounded up some of the best memes. The editor of [Know Your Meme Brad Kim](http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/949593-shitty-charmander) made a flow chart of merchandise inspired by the tattoo: See more on [Know Your Meme](http://knowyourmeme.com) It is the third time that something so random has captivated the Internet recently, between a debate about the [color of #TheDress](http://time.com/3725628/the-dress-caitlin-mcneill-post-tumblr-viral/) and a [photo of a cat](http://time.com/3817284/cat-moving-going-up-down-stairs-photo/) that looked like it was either going up or down a staircase. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/"},"headline":"This Pokémon Tattoo Is So Bad It Has Become a Meme","datePublished":"2015-04-17T16:07:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:51.417Z","description":"He wanted his tattoo to be the very best, like no tattoo ever was","url":"https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3826530/charmander-pokemon-tattoo-reddit/","name":"This Pokémon Tattoo Is So Bad It Has Become a Meme"}}]}] ```