The writing's on the wall -- or the body -- for the downfall of Mauricio Umansky's relationship with Kyle Richards ... 'cause the guy forgot how many tattoos his wife's got.
Kyle informed Mauricio about her tat count in a preview for the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," which premieres Wednesday night on Bravo -- while he was convinced Kyle only had 3 pieces on her, he forgot about 2 others.
She even threw a playful jab at him when tattoo numbers 4 and 5 slipped his mind ... telling him he should be paying a bit more attention to her body. 👀
Kyle and Mauricio pulled the plug on their relationship after production wrapped for the reality show, but the camera crew got back to work quickly after news broke about the split ... so it's unclear if this was shot while they were still together or not, but the tension is strong.
As we reported, the couple split in July after 27 years of marriage, but both have denied any talk of them going through with a divorce -- they've also been living under the same roof, with sources saying their relationship is "generally amicable."
However, the pot was definitely stirred this week after Mauricio and his 'DWTS' partner, Emma Slater, were photographed holding hands while out to dinner ... resulting in Kyle deleting a pic of the 2 dancers from her social media.
We were told Kyle's deletion was intentional ... while Mauricio claimed they held hands because he was overtaken with emotion while talking about marrying Kyle, the 'Real Housewives' star wasn't buying it.