A teenage “thief” may be forever humiliated after a tattoo artist caught him and inked his forehead with “I am a thief”.

The artist, Maycon Wesley from Brazil, cornered the teen – who had allegedly stolen a bicycle from a man with just one leg – sat him on a chair and filmed scribbling the words on his forehead.

The full words, written in Portuguese are: Eu sou ladrão e vacilão, which translates to “I am a thief and a loser”.

Reports say that the boy who seemed terrified while the artists drew on his head went missing after the incident, which happened on Friday.

His family then saw the video of the inking which has been widely circulated online and reported the artists to the police.

Police arrested Wesley and his friend, Ronildo Moreira de Araujo – whose voice can be heard in the video – on Saturday and charged them with torture.

Both Wesley and Araujo say they released the boy but do not know his whereabouts.