The Ron Swanson Mistake You Never Noticed In Parks And Recreation

Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) of Parks and Recreation is — as the kids today would describe it — a mood. From his notorious anti-government stances to his iconic mustache, Ron was simultaneously the perfect ally and foil to the more chipper Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). Ron is a man's man who's willing to put in an incredible amount of effort when it's for a worthy cause, and he's more than happy to lead his younger coworkers like Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Andy (Chris Pratt) onto more fruitful paths in life. 

But just because he serves as a mentor of sorts doesn't mean he's infallible. He's had his fair share of goof-ups over the years, and while some seem in-character, others come across as a bit ... off. Take the entire concept of the show, which is in documentary-style format. As we learn about Ron later in the series, he goes to great lengths to stay off the grid. He doesn't even want pictures of himself uploaded to Facebook for fear that he'll end up in some kind of system. As such, why would he allow himself to be filmed, for years on end, in what would surely be a broadcast television series in the same vein as what happened on The Office?

However, that's not the only aspect of Ron that has us scratching our heads.

Ron may not have any tattoos, but the actor who plays him — Nick Offerman — certainly does. He actually has two tattoos (via Body Art Guru) with a woodworker-themed crest on his right arm as well as a cross on his left arm. This is usually not a problem when portraying Ron Swanson, because the character is most often seen wearing longer sleeves. On the rare occasions where he is rocking something shorter, the tattoos aren't visible, or are covered up ... except for one noteworthy instance.

In the season 2 episode, "Practice Date," there's a scene where Ron awakes from a nap on a couch looking rather disheveled. Instead of his usual button-up shirt, he's just wearing a plain white t-shirt, and there's a moment where the sleeve rolls up and you can see Offerman's cross tattoo on his left arm, as pointed out by u/411eli on Reddit. 

You can barely see it peeking out, and it really seems like if the team behind the scenes wanted Ron to canonically have a tattoo, they would've made more of an effort to put it on display. As it stands, it just seems like a production error where the tattoo wasn't edited out or covered up with makeup. After all, we're assuming if Ron was going to get a tattoo it would be an image of bacon, ham, and every other type of meat under the sun. 

The show may have ended in 2015, but this is still one error that keeps us up at night, throughout every Parks and Rec rewatch.