There is an apocryphal story about German philosopher Georg Hegel, who once replied to a student pointing out that facts were different with a stunning "Well, so much the worse for facts." A Swedish woman, who turned her failed tattoo into a whole new identity for her son must have followed Hegel's logic.
Giselhäll Sandström, a 30-year-old resident of Kyrkhult, went to a local tattoo studio to commemorate the names of her two children by getting her arm inked. However, what was intended as a permanent declaration of love and affinity, turned out to be a blunder, as Kevin was misspelt as "Kelvin," according to the local newspaper Blekinge Läns Tidning.
"I said I wanted a tattoo of the names of my children and I gave the artist their names. The artist drew the design and never asked me anything about the spelling so I didn't give it any more thought," Sandström explained.
Having discovered the error, the young mother broke down in tears, by her own admission. Back in the tattoo parlor, the artist said there wasn't much to be done about the unfortunate spelling mistake. However, a refund was agreed upon, whereas Sandström was also handed the phone number of a tattoo removal clinic in the town of Växjö.
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Upon learning that removing the tattoo would incur multiple treatments, Sandström and her husband opted for a different course of action by simply renaming the "problem" itself.
Consequently, Kevin became Kelvin in order to better match his mom's ink. By their own admission, the family has grown to like the name.
"I had never heard the name 'Kelvin' before. There isn't anyone who names their kid Kelvin. So the more I thought about it, the more I realized that no one else has this name. It became unique. Now we think it is better than Kevin," Sandström explained her course of action.
According to Sandström, the name change didn't affect her son negatively. Kevin was only two when he switched to Kelvin.
Sandström recently had a third child. The daughter named Freja will also receive an honorary spot on her mother's arm. According to Sandström, she will be extra attentive this time and check it "over ten thousand times."
