It was meant as a very public statement of love. But last night David Beckham was left with a face as red as his Manchester United shirt after it emerged that a tattoo on his arm bearing his wife, Victoria's, name in Hindi has been misspelt.

The letter H was incorrectly included, leaving his wife's name reading VIHCTORIA.

Hindi experts in Britain spotted the mistake yesterday after Beckham was photographed wearing a T-shirt showing off the misspelt tattoo, done in Hindi because he liked the look of the language.

Padmesh Gupta, editor of Purvai, a Hindi language magazine said: "Whoever wrote this tattoo is clearly not a Hindi expert. There is no H in Victoria when it is written in Hindi."

A spokesman for the Hindi department at the Indian High Commission in central London said: "Victoria is a name that we are used to writing in Hindi because of Queen Victoria. I can assure you that there is no H in Victoria."

Beckham's agents appeared bemused yesterday over the spelling - and the word Hindi itself. A spokeswoman for Outside Organisation, which looks after Beckham's non-footballing interests, said with authority: "You have to understand that there is a difference between Hindi and Hindu. The tattoo has been checked by a Hindu expert. It's not as if David Beckham just walked into a tattoo parlour and got it done. It was carefully designed."

When told that Hindi is a language and Hindu a religion, the spokeswoman insisted: "We know the tattoo is spelt correctly."

A spokeswoman for SFX, which looks after Beckham's football interests, said: "Oh dear, I'll have to tell David there's a mistake on his arm next time he telephones in."