Woman Reports a Man on Hinge — Then Reddit Warns Her He May Already Know Too Much

Photo credit: Mehaniq/Shutterstock.com

A tattoo apprentice said she was trying to get back into dating when she matched with a man on Hinge who seemed normal at first.

Normal enough to exchange messages. Normal enough that she gave him her phone number so they could set up a date. She did not think she was handing her number to someone who would start talking about marriage, future children, and “saving” her from her career before they had even met in person.

According to the Reddit post, the woman’s Hinge profile made it clear she was a tattoo apprentice. She had photos showing her tattoos. She had her job listed. She had information about tattooing right there for anyone who actually looked at the profile before matching.

The man, called John in the post, apparently had not looked very closely.

Once they started texting, he asked what she did for work. She told him she was a tattoo apprentice. He immediately seemed surprised and said he thought she was more like a receptionist at a tattoo studio. She pointed out that her profile clearly showed she had a lot of tattoos and said “tattoo apprentice.”

Then he started judging the career.

He told her he was not a fan of tattoos. He said tattooing did not seem like a good “big girl job.” He made sweeping claims about tattoo artists being drug users, having bad pasts, and going to jail. Then, somehow, he still said he wanted to get to know her.

The woman was baffled.

She asked why he matched with her and got her number if he disliked tattooing so much. Instead of backing off, he leaned harder into it. He said he was looking for his future wife and did not want their future kids around “that kind of environment.” He suggested that if they clicked after a few dates, maybe she could give up tattooing.

That was when she called him crazy.

They had never met. They had barely started texting. And this man was already talking like her career was a problem he expected to solve.

He did not stop.

He told her she was too pretty to act like that, complained about “feminist propaganda,” said no one would want to get tattooed by a woman, and told her she would make a good housewife or children’s book illustrator. Then he told her not to text him again until she started thinking logically about “their relationship.”

There was no relationship.

A few minutes later, he kept texting anyway.

He asked if she was thinking logically about their future yet. He apologized for being rude, said he could take her to dinner, said he could provide for her, and told her he could get her out of “this lifestyle” if that was what she needed.

The woman stopped responding and reported him to Hinge.

His account was taken down.

That could have been the end of it. Annoying, creepy, maybe a little funny in the “what did I just read?” way. But the messages after the report made the whole thing feel less funny and much more dangerous.

John realized his Hinge profile was gone and texted her angrily. He said he had only matched with her and a few other people, accused her of getting his account deleted “for no reason,” and said he knew he could not save her from her lifestyle but had tried anyway.

Then, after she ignored him, he found her Facebook.

The woman said her Facebook settings were locked down enough that people should not have been able to find her through search, and her friends list was private. She still had no idea how he tracked it down. He messaged her there, asking if she remembered him, saying they had matched on Hinge, and asking if she still wanted dinner.

She asked how he found her Facebook.

He acted like it was obvious because he had her name and they lived in the same hometown. Then he asked why she blocked his number, said she would not be responding if she were not interested, and asked when he could pick her up.

She told him he was creeping her out and asked him to leave her alone.

He told her he just wanted to love her.

Then he kept going. He sent more messages apologizing for being aggressive, offering dinner again, and suggesting she could work at his job as a receptionist if she really wanted to work instead of becoming the kind of woman he pictured.

The woman blocked him on Facebook and Messenger too.

Then he found her Instagram.

That was when things got scary.

He messaged her saying he was going to show up at her workplace the next day. He had somehow found out where she worked and what time she would be there, even though she said she did not have the tattoo studio listed on her main Instagram or tattoo page. She called her boss and asked why anyone had been given her schedule.

The answer was worse than she expected.

John had called the tattoo studio pretending to be her cousin. He used her cousin’s name, someone her boss had tattooed before, and asked when she would be in so he could get a small flash tattoo. The receptionist passed the message along, and her boss gave out the time.

The woman told her boss everything. She stayed home from work the next day to be safe, and the shop planned to watch for him.

At that point, the story had gone far beyond a bad dating-app conversation. A stranger had judged her career, talked about marriage and kids, ignored clear rejection, found her on multiple platforms, used family information to impersonate a relative, and obtained her work schedule so he could show up.

She went to police with screenshots. Officers told her there was not much they could do yet because they had not met in person and he had not shown up, but they said if he came to her workplace after being told not to, she could pursue a restraining order. They also said they would patrol the area when possible.

The woman took safety steps too. She had cameras, a Ring doorbell, a back-door camera, indoor cameras, and a large dog. She told her family and had a friend stay with her that night, even though she had never given John her address.

By the end, she sounded shaken by how fast it escalated. The first post had almost treated the messages like a ridiculous dating-app disaster. Five days later, she was warning her boss, talking to police, and trying not to go to work because a man she had never met believed he could show up and collect her for lunch.

She had wondered if reporting him to Hinge was too much.

The update made it clear it was probably the first smart move she made.

What Commenters Said

Commenters overwhelmingly told her she was not overreacting. Many said the first round of texts was already alarming because he was trying to control her career, future, and identity before even meeting her.

A lot of people were especially disturbed by how he tracked her down after being blocked. Finding her Facebook, then Instagram, then her workplace showed he was not simply bad at taking rejection. He was escalating.

Several commenters urged her to make a police report even if officers could not act immediately, because a paper trail could matter if he showed up later. Others told her to warn friends, family, coworkers, and the studio so nobody accidentally gave him more information.

The strongest reaction was to him pretending to be her cousin to get her work schedule. Commenters said that crossed a major line because it showed planning, deception, and a willingness to use personal details against her. What started as a creepy dating-app match had become a real safety issue.