We were talking in class about cancel culture, especially whether posts from years ago should still affect someone’s career. I would have called the trail we leave online a “digital footprint.” Then a student used a phrase I had never heard in English, and it made the familiar one suddenly sound temporary. He called it a “digital tattoo.” He knew it as a common Japanese expression. It exists in English too, but I had somehow never heard anyone use it. I think the Japanese metaphor may be better. A footprint suggests a trace you leave behind. A tattoo is attached to you and difficult to remove. Once a post, photo or video has been copied, shared or screenshotted, deleting the original may not make every version disappear. The expression is not completely absent from English. Juan Enriquez used “digital tattoos” in a 2013 TED talk about the permanence of our online lives. Still, it never became as familiar to me as “digital footprint.” I left class thinking it was pretty cool that my student had just taught me a better English expression. I love my silly cool job! Which metaphor feels more accurate to you: “digital footprint” or “digital tattoo”?