What is Shrimps Is Bugs?

Shrimps Is Bugs is a Reddit catchphrase that started as a knee tattoo and grew into a dedicated subreddit of over 20,000 members where people post their own tattoos, cakes and art of the phrase.

Where did Shrimps Is Bugs come from?

It came from a May 16th, 2023 /r/TattooDesigns post by u/Lewbular asking for help covering an above-the-knee tattoo that read 'shrimps is bugs,' which commenters told him to keep.

What does Shrimps Is Bugs mean?

Literally it argues that shrimp are bugs, loosely true since both are arthropods, but the humor comes from the ungrammatical phrasing combined with the tattoo-permanent commitment to the claim.

How do you use Shrimps Is Bugs?

People typically get it as a tattoo in different lettering styles, decorate baked goods with it, or post mockup designs to /r/ShrimpsIsBugs; the subreddit treats earnest celebration of the phrase as the main format.

Is Shrimps Is Bugs still popular?

The /r/ShrimpsIsBugs subreddit passed 20,000 members by January 2024, and new tattoo posts kept arriving through late 2023, though wider viral attention outside the sub has faded since.

Shrimps Is Bugs

2023catchphrasesemi-active

Published October 22, 2026

In May 2023, Redditor u/Lewbular asked /r/TattooDesigns for help covering up a drunk tattoo above his knee that read 'shrimps is bugs,' and commenters begged him to keep it instead1. The subreddit /r/ShrimpsIsBugs opened within 24 hours, and by late May 2023 strangers were walking into tattoo parlors to get the same ungrammatical phrase inked on themselves2.

catchphrase memes subreddit origin memes absurdist humor memes misspelling memes 2023 memes

Overview

The joke rests on a dumb but technically defensible biological claim, since shrimp and insects are both arthropods, so declaring shrimps to be bugs has a faint ring of truth under the obvious grammar error2. What makes the catchphrase work is the pairing of broken syntax ('shrimps is bugs' instead of 'shrimp are bugs') with the absolute commitment of putting it in ink above your knee1.

Most /r/ShrimpsIsBugs content takes one of three shapes: fresh tattoos of the phrase in different fonts and layouts, cakes and other foods decorated with the words, or mockups designed to improve on u/Lewbular's original lettering4. The humor is sincere rather than ironic. Posters are not making fun of the phrase, they are celebrating it as a legitimate design worth permanent commitment.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Creator

u/Lewbular

Date

2023

On May 16th, 2023, Redditor u/Lewbular posted a photograph of a tattoo above his knee reading 'shrimps is bugs' to /r/TattooDesigns under the title 'Cover up suggestions?'1 In the post description, he explained he got the tattoo at 19 and wanted a horizontal American traditional or black-and-grey design to hide it, adding that the small shrimp figure above the text could stay or go as long as the words themselves were covered1.

Instead of design pitches, the top comments argued that the tattoo was already perfect and should be preserved. The post gathered more than 16,000 upvotes and over 2,100 comments in the following eight months2. Four days later, on May 20th, u/Lewbular returned, this time to the newly created /r/ShrimpsIsBugs subreddit, with a short post titled 'holy shit' confirming, '….holy shit Alright fine I'll keep it,' which drew more than 2,400 upvotes3.

How It Spread

The /r/ShrimpsIsBugs subreddit opened on May 17th, 2023, one day after u/Lewbular's original request, and reached over 20,000 members by January 20242. Rather than archiving the original tattoo, members began producing their own versions almost immediately.

On May 21st, 2023, u/ZestyCthulhu posted a cleaner mockup design for a 'shrimps is bugs' tattoo back to /r/TattooDesigns, drawing over 9,100 upvotes within eight months4. On May 29th, u/Hand_shoes shared a finished 'shrimps is bugs' tattoo done by an artist named Shannon at Devine Street to /r/tattoos, where it gained more than 1,100 upvotes5. The format moved off skin that summer when u/g0back2bed posted a decorated 'shrimps is bugs' cake from their bakery on June 26th, 20236.

Fresh tattoo posts kept arriving through late 2023. On September 2nd, 2023, u/TyrannosaurusWreckd posted a new version of the tattoo to /r/ShrimpsIsBugs that pulled over 4,500 upvotes within four months7. By early 2024, KYM documented the subreddit's membership past 20,000 and listed multiple finished tattoos of the phrase2.

Timeline

2023-05-16

U/Lewbular posts a photo of his 'shrimps is bugs' tattoo to /r/TattooDesigns asking for cover-up ideas[1].

2023-05-17

The /r/ShrimpsIsBugs subreddit is created to catalog the phrase and its variants[2].

2023-05-20

U/Lewbular posts to /r/ShrimpsIsBugs that he will keep the tattoo after all[3].

2023-05-21

U/ZestyCthulhu posts a redesigned 'shrimps is bugs' tattoo mockup gaining more than 9,100 upvotes[4].

2023-05-29

U/Hand_shoes shares a fresh 'shrimps is bugs' tattoo by artist Shannon at Devine Street[5].

2023-06-26