Having a style that stands out in Hollywood isn’t easy, but celebrities still manage to make unique fashion statements by getting inked.
Some celebrity tattoos are impossible to miss, while others cover up their ink up with clothing- at least until they sport a bikini while vacationing in St. Tropez. Whether their tattoos are tiny or mammoth sized, and tacky or classy, celebrities certainly have a way of making anything look good, and often end up setting tattoo trends for the rest of us.
Sure, celebrity tattoos often end up becoming trendy. But many of them have sentiment and meaning behind them, symbolizing a profound experience, belief, religion, loved one, or an important cause. Let’s find out the stories behind the ink on the world’s hottest tattooed celebrities.
12 Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has been nominated as the world’s hottest tattooed celebrity many times before. With several tattoos on her back, neck and arm, most of her ink symbolizes her children and her belief in Buddhism.
Angelina used to have a tattoo on her arm of her ex husband’s name, Billy Bob Thornton. After they split, she covered it up with a tattoo of all the geographical coordinates of the places her adoptive children came from, including Cambodia and Ethiopia. She also has a Buddhist caption for protection tattooed on her back, which she dedicated to her eldest son, Maddox.
11 Megan Fox
Like Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox has tattoos scattered all over her body. But two tattoos on her back are inscriptions that represent her career in Hollywood.
The tattoo on her upper right shoulder is a line from the Shakespeare tragedy, King Lear, which reads: “We will all laugh at gilded butterflies”. It’s said that Megan described the tattoo as meaning not to get too caught up in Hollywood because people will laugh or make fun of you.
Another one of her inscription tattoos is on her rib cage, which reads “All those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music,” a quote from the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche.
10 Rihanna
Ri Ri is just as famous for her style as she is for her music, which includes at least 22 tattoos. She describes her tattoos as an addiction, with tattoos on her neck, foot, collarbone, upper back, her entire right hand, the back of her ankle and inside her ear. While some of her tattoos are stars, skulls and henna designs, she also has a tattoo of an inspiring quote which reads “Never a failure, always a lesson” - a favourite amongst her fans.
Another memorable and sentimental tattoo of Rihanna’s is of a gun on the side of her torso. She got it shortly after the incident where she was physically abused by her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown. She explained the gun tattoo as a symbol of strength, which represents her belief that she’ll never be a victim.
9 David Beckham
When you think of the hottest male tattooed celebrity, does David Beckham win?
The blonde haired, blue eyed professional soccer player makes us fall in love with him over and over again with his full sleeve tattoos that make up his tough, pretty boy look.
Many of his tattoos symbolize his children, such as the number 7 on his left pinky finger for his daughter, Harper Seven Beckham. He also has the number 99 tattooed on the top of his finger, which he explains was a memorable year for him (perhaps because it was the year he married former Spice Girl and fashion designer, Victoria Beckham). He also has a charming tattoo on his arm within his sleeve that reads “Victoria” in Sanskrit.
8 Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson went against the grain and got a less than fashionable tattoo- on purpose. On her right rib cage, she got a horseshoe with the words “lucky you” tattooed beneath it. Many people were unimpressed with the craftsmanship of her tattoo, but what they didn’t realize was that she meant for it to be that way.
Scarlett purposely sought out a Parisian tattoo artist, who describes his style as “ignorant”, throwing away the rules of conventional, artistic designs to focus on raw and almost retro-looking tattoos. What do you think, did Scarlett set a new trend or not?
7 John Mayer
John Mayer looks so innocent until he flashes the full sleeve tattoo on his left arm. While his tattoos certainly do a good job of giving him a “bad boy” look, they’re mostly made up of black, white and colored peonies and Japanese cherry blossoms, suggesting he’s a softie at heart. His Japanese inspired tattoo also features a dragon like figure and koi fish on his forearm.
John Mayer also gets career-related tattoos. The word “home” on his bicep symbolizes his song “Home Life” from his hit album, Heavier Things. Within his sleeve, he also has the initials “SRV” tattooed on his shoulder, which stand for his singer-songwriter idol’s initials, Stevie Ray Vaughan.
6 Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus quickly grew out of the image of the angelic star on the children’s hit TV show, Hannah Montana, to a tattooed and pierced celebrity (with a gnarly habit of sticking out her tongue 24/7). Nonetheless, she looks just as hot with tattoos as Angelina Jolie or Megan Fox.
At the age of 23, Miley allegedly already has 25 tattoos. Her first tattoo “just breathe” across her ribs is said to be the tattoo that started her ink addiction. Not all of her tattoos have known meanings, but feature a watermelon slice and alien head on her fingers, a cat on her inner lip and crossed arrows on her right elbow. One of her tattoos that does have a sentimental meaning is the outline of a heart on her pinky finger, which each of her adult family members have.
5 Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera has several sentimental tattoos that symbolize her career and love life. Her celebrity nickname, Xtina, is tattooed on the back of her neck, while the words “Te Amo Siempre” are tattooed on her left elbow, which is the spanish phrase for “I love you always”, which was a tribute to her ex-husband, music producer Jordan Bratman.
Christina also has a tattoo of a small flower on her left wrist, and the hebrew letters Yud and Bet, which are Jordan Bratman’s initials.
Do you think Christina Aguilera will cover up the tattoos she got for her ex-husband, or keep them as memories? Either way, they still look good on her!
4 Ed Sheeran
The British pop singer has received plenty of flack from fans about his tattoos, but according to his twitter account, he doesn’t care.
One of Ed Sheeran’s tattoos that gained the most (negative) attention was a gigantic tattoo of a colorful lion on his chest, which he decided to get to celebrate selling out all three of his shows at Wembley Stadium in July 2015.
Unfortunately, fans didn’t think the tattoo was all that great- but Ed didn’t care. After receiving a bunch of hate for his latest tattoo, he tweeted “It’s not the first weird tattoo I’ve got and it won’t be the last, but I like all of them.” Ed Sheeran has a few other tattoos that symbolize milestones in his career, such as the Heinz ketchup logo on his arm to represent the start of his Columbus, Ohio tour.
3 Selena Gomez
At the age of 22, pop singer Selena Gomez has 4 tattoos that we know of: a tiny music note on her wrist, roman numerals on the back of her neck, a quote from the bible that reads “I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me” on her right hip and a quote in arabic that reads “Love yourself first”.
Although we don’t know what all of Selena’s tattoos signify, the roman numerals are said to be a tribute to her Mom, who was born in 1976. The music note symbolizes being named after the singer, Selena Quintanilla Perez, and of course, being a musician herself.
2 Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp has several tattoos, including one from his previous relationship with Winona Ryder. But as the relationship ended, his “Winona Forever” tattoo also came to an end, and was covered up as “Wino Forever”.
Johnny Depp has been quoted saying “My body is a journal in a way”, when speaking of his many tattoos. Aside from "Wino Forever", Johnny Depp also has tattoos of a Cherokee Indian chief, his mother’s name Betty Sue tattooed inside a heart on his arm, as well as his daughter’s name, Lily Rose, tattooed on his chest close to his heart. The infamous bad boy certainly puts sentiment into his ink.
1 Justin Bieber
Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that Justin is super good-looking and his tattoos make him look even hotter! Like other young celebs, they seem to be his way of getting over the cute, tweeny-boy image he had when he was younger.
Biebs has several tattoos across his upper body. He got his first one when he was just 16 years old, it was a little seagull he got on his hip. Since then he's had several more manly ones, in different artistic styles, done by prominent tattoo artists. Justin seems to be a fan of art, when it comes to his tattoos at least, he has a Banksy-inspired tatt on his right arm. On the more sentimental side of things he also has two tattoos dedicated to his mother: her birth year in the form of Roman numerals on his chest and her eye to watch over him on his arm. You can see a map of Justin Bieber's tattoos with info on all of them here.
