NEW YORK (WLNY) – Raising the hottest teen heartthrob in the music business must have its challenges.

Like finding out your son has a new tattoo — on live television.

Justin Bieber‘s mother, Pattie Mallette, appeared on WLNY-TV’s The Couch Wednesday morning. During the interview, host Carolina Bermudez asked Mallette what she thought of the new ink on her son’s forearm.

Justin Bieber performs at Madison Square Garden on November 28, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

She was shocked.

“See, sometimes I find out things like this…the same way as everyone else,” she said.

Mallette admitted she had noticed her son’s new body art just moments before the show started, but she was unsure if it was a new tattoo or not.

“I saw that like seriously five minutes before I came on [The Couch],” she said. “I was looking at something and I said, ‘Is that a new tattoo?’”

Mallette was on the show to promote her new fundraising project — a short film called ‘Crescendo’ about the life of Beethoven’s mother.

The movie debuts on Thursday, Feb. 28.