Taylor Swift has one of the biggest fan bases in the world. The singer-songwriter rose to prominence as a teenager in 2006, when she released her debut album. Many of the people who started listening to her then are still fans, and they are extremely dedicated to her. Swift said she has a good relationship with her fans, but some of their behavior shocks her.

Taylor Swift said fans often surprised her with one act

Swift has prided herself on having a close, friendly relationship with her fans. Many have sought ways to get even closer to her, though. She said she always felt taken aback when people got tattoos for her.

“There are always those guys who scream, ‘Marry me!’ during the shows, but I think the tattoos are the craziest,” she told Men’s Fitness in 2008. “One guy came up and said that after I signed his arm, he got my signature tattooed on.”

While it flattered her, Swift preferred when people showed their appreciation through less permanent measures.

“Then there are guys that make shirts [referencing my songs] with things like, ‘You’ll never have to burn my picture,’” she said. “Funny things like that make me really happy.”

Taylor Swift promised fans she would get a tattoo — then backed out 

In a photo for her debut album, Swift has a tattoo of a heart on her foot. She told fans that it wasn’t real, but she would get a real one if her album performed well.

“What most people don’t know is that it is a henna tattoo and it’s not real,” she said in a Q&A for Great American Country. “It will be though, if my album goes double platinum. It’s a pact that me, my friends, and my family all have made. We will all get a tattoo of a heart on our foot if my album goes double platinum. I definitely want that to happen, so go out and buy lots and lots of CDs, so that maybe that will happen sooner than later.”

While the album went platinum several times over, Swift did not get the tattoo.

“I can back out of it,” she told MTV. “Mostly because my dad said he would take it off with a belt sander, so…”

She spoke about the importance of having a relationship with the people who support her

Though Swift has a huge fan base, she tries to make each person feel close to her. She even welcomed fans into her home before the release of her album 1989.

“I did this thing called the 1989 Secret Sessions a few months ago, way before the album came out,” she told NPR. “I had spent months picking fans on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter — people who had been so supportive and had tried and tried to meet me, had been to five shows or however many events but had never met me before. And so I picked these people. And in every single one of my houses in the U.S. and my hotel room in London, I would invite 89 people over to my living room, play them the entire album, tell them the stories behind it.”

She believed this allowed fans to be more relaxed and open with her.