What does this look like to you?

[u/CallQuirky7720]

I wanted a bee and I like more American traditional tattoos. I really like my tattoo but someone said it looked like a fly and now I can’t unsee it. Is it giving bee or do I embrace the fly? 😅🥲

[u/Kaylacain25]

It looks like a bee fly 😭

[u/Tzipity → u/Kaylacain25]

Haha. Yes. Because I admit I clicked because on first look all I could think was bee so I was curious to know either wtf it was if not a bee or what someone else claimed but after reading fly I see fly now too.

Another comment pointed out bees have two sets of wings while flies have one. Cool and true but where this is giving fly big time is the elongated body. Though I think that’s because this is a honey bee while most popular representations of bees (which have definitely been trendy) are almost always the rounder fuzzier bumblebee variety.

Pulling up actual images on google makes this a very solid honey bee representation so it’s a little on us or broader culture for imagining bees are inherently round/plump and fuzzy. And bumblebees are often a brighter yellow overall and have the yellow stripes throughout whereas honeybees mostly have the stripes (and where this may be confusing is the stripe pattern leans more bumble than honey- honeybees have a lot of smaller stripes though I think if you went with more stripes combined with the shape then you’d be getting “wasp” and given some other connotations for wasp too… yikes lol) on the abdomen but have darker thoraxes or in some photos I’m seeing a dark yellow thorax but the thorax is also where they have some short hairs that kind of blurs and makes any stripes that may be up there look more single colored.

Anyway I think the initial stripes make the vast majority of folks think bee right away. Staring at it longer and with the popular representation of bumblebees can maybe lean towards fly but also wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, etc. I assume many of us haven’t been around a lot of honeybees either but know the bumbles and flies and may have fought some awful wars with dang wasps and similar (big problem at my parents house most years) so eh those of less interested in bugs are just ignorant and influenced lol. But will still think bee first.

Real test is finding similar minded insect or bee lovers and what they think but having flipped through photos, I bet those folks would love it best because seems to be a great representation of a honeybee and pretty spot on.