A journalist is facing backlash after she critiqued a tattoo used to commemorate the Manchester bombing.
Joan Meiners on Tuesday tweeted a compilation of identical bee tattoos — which many people have had inked on them to remember the 22 people killed in the 2017 terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert.
Without noting the connection to the attack, Meiners knocked the two-wing worker bee design, which has long been a symbol of the city in the English city.
“I’m considering starting a freelance business where I offer to look at your bee tattoo design and tell you whether or not it actually looks like a bee,” Meiners wrote.
“What do you think? How much should I charge? Taxonomically, these are all flies.”
The collage appeared to be from a piece published by Public Radio International about why people were getting the two-wing bee tattoo design in the wake of the fatal blast, the Daily Mail first reported.
Some Twitter users were quick to pile on Meiners for appearing to criticize the symbol, which has become representative of resilience.
“Your desire to make a smug intellectual point is drowned out by the fact it is incredibly tone deaf,” one user wrote. “These tattoos charitably commemorate the Manchester bombing, borrowing the 150+ year old image of the Worker Bee associated with the city.”
Another Twitter user from Manchester slammed the journalist’s remark as “insensitive”
“As someone from Manchester, this is a real bad take on your part, especially given what those tattoos represent,” the user wrote. “I’m pretty sure the families of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing would love to hear the insensitive nitpicking of someone on the internet.”
Meiners — who has worked with ProPublica — didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.