Celebrity Tattoos and Tattoo Designs
A Gallery of Body Art Designs Showing Up In Unexpected Places
Tattoos aren’t just for sailors, “outcasts” and outlaws anymore.
They’ve superceded bikers and gangsters, gone beyond heavy metal and punk
rock bands. Royalty, rock stars, movie stars, sports icons, supermodels and
heads of state have all adorned themselves with various types and kinds of body
art. And, because of celebrities’ constant media exposure and sheer popularity,
members of the masses are transforming and emulating their favorite celebrity
tattoo designs.
Movie Stars
Tattoos have become accepted (and perhaps somewhat expected) on the big silver
screen. Hollywood is all about scandal, so what was ever “taboo”
is now in high demand. So it goes with tattoos, and other forms of body modification.
No longer is it just the bad boys and bad girls brandishing body art, but also
the wholesome family stars and supporting actors and actresses. All kinds of
celebrities are wearing tattoos.
- Julia Roberts. This star of Pretty Woman, Dying Young,
Something to Talk About, and Erin Brokovich has a few tattoos. One is a Chinese
kanji character surrounding a heart that she wears on her shoulder and a butterfly
tattoo on her lower back.
- Sandra Bullock has a tribal tattoo design below her navel.
- Gillian Anderson (Scully on The X-Files) is also decorated.
She has a turtle shell tattoo on her ankle and the Sanskrit script for “Everyday”
is on her wrist.
- Drew Barrymore is quite notoriously tattooed with her
own personal gallery of body art, and just a few of her designs include a
cross, a butterfly, and angel tattoos. She also wears a blue moon smiling,
and a bouquet of sweet peas on various areas of her body.
- Christina Ricci (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Casper) wears
a lion tattoo on her shoulder and a bat tattoo on her bikini line.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series,
Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo II) bears a Chinese kanji symbol on her hip, and has
a beautiful pair of purple dragonfly tattoos on her lower back.
- Jennifer Aniston. This Friends star has a small heart
tattoo on her stomach.
- Christina Applegate. This star of Don’t Tell Mom
the Babysitter’s Dead and the sitcom Married With Children has an apple
tattoo design and a climbing vine tattoo.
- Pamela Anderson of Bay Watch has a few tattoos, including
a barbed wire armband and a tribal design on her lower back.
- Alyssa Milano (Charmed) has a tattoo of a chain with a
cross, fairies, the Sacred Heart and angels in her designs.
- Angelina Jolie. Famous for her roles as Lara Croft in
The Tomb Raider, Angelina has several tattoos, her most recent design being
an authentic Thai tattoo of a tiger on her lower back.
- Ben Afflek also bears a few tattoos of his own, including
the incredibly popular barbed wire armband.
- Nicholas Cage (Face Off, National Treasure) has an incredibly
unique tattoo design of a monitor lizard wearing a top hat on his upper back.
- Robert Deniro. Despite the number of tattoos he was shown
with in the thriller Cape Fear, Mr. Deniro only has one real tattoo, a panther
design.
- Jeff Corwin, the Animal Planet hit, bears a snake tattoo
design on his upper left shoulder.
- The nine actors who made up the “Fellowship” in The Lord of
the Rings trilogy (except possibly Rhy-Davies who played Gimli, and is rumored
to have sent a stunt double) all got an Elvish tattoo meaning “The Nine”
on their ankles.
However, in this case, there is one top movie star that doesn’t belong
in the ranks of the tattooed…Vin Diesel. Despite being bedecked in XXX
and other films, in truth Vin is un-inked.
Pop, Rock and Other Music Stars
Musicians have been sporting tattoos and body art for ages! Before most people
had overcome their fear of the taboo, rock stars, heavy metal musicians and
punk bands were braving it out. Now, musicians in nearly every genre sport ink
of some sort or another.
- Jon Bon Jovi (80’s rock idol) is tattooed with the
Superman insignia, a dragon tattoo and a longhorn skull.
- Jonathan Davis of KORN (and the other members too) bears
many tattoos. His ink includes the letters HIV, the KORN logo, and a tattoo
of a bishop ripping away his skin to reveal Jesus underneath.
- Dave Grohl, who has had the pleasure of playing with bands
like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Nine Inch Nails, has a chain tattoo design
on his upper right arm and the letters FF on his back.
- Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit has several different tattoo
images including an angel, a flower, a spiral design and a ring.
- Bill Idol, among other ink, has a tattoo design of a Russian
comic book character.
- Eminem, a.k.a. Slim Shady, also wears quite a few tats.
He has a dog tag tattoo design, a mushroom, and his children’s names
tattooed on him, just to name a few.
- Lenny Kravitz boasts at least two tattoos, one of a dragon
and another of a cross.
- Henry Rollins bears the image of the words “Search
& Destroy” emblazoned across his back above a tribal sun, among
other body art.
- Aaliyah. This late actress and singer was decorated with
a dove on her lower back, an initial & star on her hand, and a music symbol
tattoo on her ankle.
- Beyonce has a praying angle adorning her upper left thigh.
- Avril Lavigne bears a small star on the inside of her
wrist (the left one). The other tattoo that you may believe she has is, in
fact, a fake and was a temporary tattoo placed (on the top of her butt) for
a music award ceremony performance.
- And, drum roll please…Brittany Spears. Perhaps not
as fortunate as her other tattooed pop-stars, Brittany recently suffered the
misfortune of not only one tattoo mistake, but actually two. Learn from her
example to be very careful when choosing tattoos in a language you can neither
read nor write.
These are hardly all of the tattooed musicians – the list goes on and
on, to include N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rancid,
P.O.D., and even the Dixie Chicks. These country star divas all have matching
tiny chick footprints on one foot.
Sports Icons and Supermodels
Perhaps not discussed as much (but certainly still drooled at) are the sports
stars and supermodels. Still very much tattooed celebrities in the lime-light,
stars in these industries are often able to enjoy a little bit more privacy
than those who regularly appear on the silver screen, but that doesn’t
mean they haven’t influenced popular tattoo designs.
Some well known sports celebrities with tattoos include:
- Dennis Rodman. This rowdy, rambunctious, attention loving
basketball player was covered with tattoos and body jewelry. Some of the pictures
in his body art gallery included a Harley Davidson tattoo, a picture of his
daughter, a shark, and a cross – among other things.
- British soccer star David Beckham proudly wears at least
nine different tattoo designs!
- Laila Ali, boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali, has tattoos
that include her name and a teddy bear design.
- Stone Cold Steve Austin. This wrestler has a tattoo of
the state of Texas and a longhorn on his left calf, as well as a crystal ball
on his left ankle.
- Kobe Bryant. This famous basketball star has many tattoos,
one of which is a large tribute to his wife that he wears on his upper right
arm.
- Tennis star Anna Kournikova has a large star tattoo design
on her lower back.
But, by far, the mostly highly inked group of athletes (if you’d go as
far as to call them that) would be the various branches of the wrestling world,
where a great many of the characters, man or woman, good or bad, are heavily
inked.
There are also quite a few models and supermodels which bear body art. Rosie
Ciavolino has a small tattoo just below her bikini line. Ehrinn Cummings has
a frog on her check along with 2 elephants on her lower back. Nicky Hilton has
a heart with wings on the inside of her right wrist and the word “Hilton”
written in gothic font in the small of her back. She also has a small cross
on the back of her neck. Her sister, Paris Hilton, used to have Nick Carter’s
name inked on the right side of her backside, but has since hat it removed with
laser surgery. And, 90’s Calvin Klein spokes-model Kate Moss has a tiny
heart on the back of her left and a small crown on her left shoulder.
Royalty and Heads of State
Despite the past’s unkind view of tattooing and body modification, some
of the names that appear on the following list may be a little surprising, especially
when you consider how far back the history goes.
- Winston Churchill, famous World War II figure of England,
had a tattoo of an anchor on his arm.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt proudly bore a tattoo image of his
family crest.
- Thomas Alva Edison, genius inventor, was tattooed with
five dots on his left forearm that were arranged in the fashion of a “5”
dice.
- King Alexander of Yugoslavia was inked with a large eagle
tattoo design on his chest.
- King Alfonso of Spain was also tattooed.
- King Edward VII of England bore a tattoo of the Jerusalem
Cross.
- King Frederik IX of Denmark was tattooed with a dragon
and his family crest.
- King George II of Greece bore tattoo designs.
- King George V was decorated with a dragon design.
- King Harold II of England was the first documented royal
to wear a tattoo. He lived from 1022 to 1066.
- King Henry IV was also among the ranks of royalty boasting
body art.
Other famous royalty bearing tattoos include Prince Charles, Prince Rudolph,
Prince Frederik, Prince Waldermar, and Richard the Lion Hearted, King of England
(1189-99 A.D.) who was also branded with the Jerusalem Cross.
You’ll find them almost anywhere, on almost anyone now-a-days. In Hollywood
and New York, but also St. Joseph, Missouri and Lexington, Kentucky. It’s
a tradition sponsored and carried on by many of our nation and world. Tattoos
show up in churches on ministers and hidden behind the suits of Wall Street
professionals.
Thanks in part to celebrities who’s tattoos are seen by the world, there
are no longer any social boundaries, or status quos to stop us. We have taken
tattoo into another realm, one shared by all of humanity, rich and poor, ordinary
and famous.
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