Karl Stefanovic discovered his tattoo was mistranslated 20 years later

Karl Stefanovic didn't learn his tattoo was mistranslated until 20 years after the fact.

The TODAY host opened up about his tattoo mishap on Nova's Jase & Lauren show.

While on the topic of unfortunate tattoos, Stefanovic showed off a Japanese phrase inked on his shoulder to hosts Jason Hawkins, Lauren Phillips and Clint Stanaway.

READ MORE: Oprah Winfrey rushed to hospital with stomach flu

"I got this when I was at uni. Look at that bad boy!" Stefanovic said on the show.

Phillips then took the opportunity to ask the TODAY host what the tattoo translated to.

"Well, it's controversial, because when I got it done, I wanted to say to be real and to love, right?" Stefanovic said.

READ MORE: Lily Allen had a different name when she was born

But the tattoo he ended up with had a different meaning altogether.

"And then, like, 20 years later, I'm in this pool with this Japanese lady and I said what does this mean?" She goes, 'it doesn't mean that'," he continued.

"And I said, well what does it mean? She goes, it means you really love yourself!"

Stefanovic isn't the only star to have a tattoo with an error, with Ariana Grande, Christina Aguilera and Hayden Panettiere being just some of the famous names in the same boat.

Back in the noughties, Britney Spears got a tattoo with the wrong translation.

According to the New York Times, the pop star had meant to have the word "mysterious" written in Chinese characters on her hip.

However, the word ended up being inked on to translate in English to "strange".

Singer Ed Sheeran hilariously got the words Galway Grill instead of his song title Galway Girl tattooed by his music video co-star Saoirse Ronan.

While he claimed it was a mistake, Ronan later set the record straight on The Late Late Show With James Corden and said it "was all planned".

Jennifer Lawrence also had a tattoo mishap when she got H2O inked on her finger with her number two placed a bit too high.

"I should've Googled it before I got it tattooed on my body forever," she told HitFix.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.