Ever since that photo emerged of Zayn Malik apparently sporting some brand new ink on his face, the Internet has been utterly gripped by this tale of a musician and his awful tattoo choices.
‘Directioners’ on social media basically lost their shit over the whole thing, which is strange, because they’re usually so chilled out and rational.
One Direction’s former tattoo artist Kevin Paul even came out to have a dig at the former 1D star, basically saying Zayn will regret the ink because, you know, it’s a bit shit.
A phoenix on the side of your head emblazoned with the initials M.O.M is bad enough, but when those letters aren’t even a tribute to your mother and are merely to mark your debut solo album Mind Of Mine, it’s basically a screw up of epic proportions.
However, in a major plot twist in this epic saga, it looks like Paul and all those devoted Malik fans may have spoken too soon.
You see, Zayn’s girlfriend Gigi Hadid may have accidentally let the cat out of the bag and revealed in a Snapchat post that the whole thing was a ruse.
She shared a snap of the singer after doing some Snapchat doodles on him to make him look like Deadpool. As you do.
But eagle-eyed fans (ie. people with too much time on their hands) have noticed something – he doesn’t have that facial tattoo.
WE REPEAT: THERE IS NO TATTOO ON HIS FACE.
Absolute game changer.
And, it seems that people were pretty stunned by this apparent revelation.
Some fans were delighted…
Zayn's head tattoo was fake tattoo 😅 pic.twitter.com/TH8EDw7QAk
— Update & stuff (@1D_Swiss_Team) March 14, 2016
In other news, I think it's safe to say that Zayn's head tattoo was fake -P pic.twitter.com/k5vDfBNdO5
— . (@Radio1Direction) March 14, 2016
zayn got a fake tattoo 💉❌
zayn exposed fake fans 🕵🔦📝
zayn promoted his album 💸💰💳
be like zayn 😇— roo (@zeeknd) March 14, 2016
This is Zayn
Zayn made a fake tattoo to promote MoM
Zayn exposed all the fake hoes
Zayn is smart
Be like Zayn pic.twitter.com/JdbkUn7C7C
— 𝕹𝖎𝖈𝖔𝖑𝖊 (@VaniIIa_Shake) March 14, 2016
While others just couldn’t handle the lies…
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 does @GiGiHadid's latest Snapchat mean that Zayn's new head tattoo was fake? Can't. Cope. 😱 pic.twitter.com/SbqpNEvCQG
— ASOS (@ASOS) March 14, 2016
I MISS ZAYN'S FAKE TATTOO ALREADY pic.twitter.com/jTiBqA8LnC
— ZAYN Is God MALIK (@zayntheist) March 14, 2016
Zayn actually pulled an Ed Sheeran on us with his fake tattoo. I will honestly never understand him, I don't think he understands himself 🙈
— nat loves harry 🌸 (@fangirlwaters) March 14, 2016
https://twitter.com/niazartkid/status/709269825265258496
So it looks like it was just a temporary tattoo and the whole thing was a PR stunt to promote his new album, which drops on March 25.
We just don’t know what to believe anymore…