Hollywood’s rich and famous have an inclination for tattoos. Some of them hide the results, some show them off, and others don’t really have a choice as they just keep packing them on until hiding them is no longer an option.
David Beckham has close to 100 pieces. In his case, no matter how many there are or, in other cases, how silly or senseless they may appear, every design has a meaning—or so they say.
Then there are those who are honest, who have long since given up saying they have no regrets about their tattoos – like Miley Cyrus – and admit wishing they had never started.
Here are 30 such cases, with some of the usual suspects, and others you would never have imagined with permanent ink.
#1 Miley Cyrus
If someone said Hannah Montana had tattoos, the “Whooo…” would’ve been a lot louder. But Miley Cyrus? That tracks.
The singer and actress who cyber-bullied Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez, and stunned the world with her hard pivot from teen sweetheart to buzz-cut twerker, has around 70 tattoos.
Her inking campaign kicked off in earnest after her divorce from Liam Hemsworth in 2020.
From there, inspiration came hard and fast and included a joint inking with Pete Davidson after an SNL skit that left them both with the phrase “We Babies.”
At least one of her tattoos is a tribute to family, like the motorcycle for her father Billy Ray Cyrus.
But then there is a rose on her tricep, a sunflower silhouette on her bicep, an anchor on her hand, and the words “Rolling Stone” on her feet…
The 32-year-old has since also transcended her Wrecking Ball era and is now leaning into Maison Margiela and Marc Jacobs vibes. And with that shift has come some regrets.
“A mistake that I made that I still think about is, like, 80% of my tattoos,” Buzzfeed reported her saying, although she admitted that the regret was not enough to make her endure the scouring of laser treatment.
Image source: mileycyrus, mileycyrus
#2 Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie, in the context of “tattoo,” is characterized by the mosaic of dark green on her back.
The Mr and Mrs Smith alum is said to have rounded this particular grouping–Buddhist blessings for peace, love, and prosperity–off in 2016 during a visit to Thailand.
On the left arm, she sports the quote: “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages” by American playwright, Tennessee Williams.
“I don’t think I know one person who I think can be completely who they are every second of the day, who feels completely free,” she justified the inkwork to Rolling Stone in 1999.
“So it’s kind of a prayer for everybody to find their happiness, to break out.”
But it’s not all depth and kumbaya with the SALT actress.
Just level with her belt buckle resides the rather dark declaration: “What nourishes me also destroys me,” next to a giant cross covering a dragon tattoo she acquired in Amsterdam before she married Jonny Lee Miller in 1996.
On her left bicep is the inscription of a historic date (May 13, 1940) when Winston Churchill said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,”—in Roman numerals.
Splayed across her lower back is a tattoo of a 12-inch Bengal tiger. This, she got to celebrate her Cambodian citizenship, and reports indicate that it was crafted with a manual needle in line with the traditional Thai style.
On Jolie’s left shoulder, she has the coordinates of her six children’s birthplaces, along with that of her dramatically-divorced husband, Brad Pitt.
Also among the 13 designs are the words “know your rights” in Gothic lettering on her neckline.
In the grand Hollywood tattoo lexicon, Jolie’s array is admittedly less a stinging metaphor and more lived experience.
Refreshing, really, in a scene where someone will slap a half-peeled onion on their ankle and attribute it to “my adopted dog.”
Image source: JB Lacroix, Gisela Schober
#3 Lena Headey
Game of Thrones actress Lena Headey is a walking gallery of diverse designs, boasting 13 tattoos on her arms, feet, back, wrists, and knuckles.
As People observed in 2020, Headey, now 52, seems as hooked on tattoos as her GoT character was on power.
She agrees:
“I always want more. It’s a terrible thing,” she confessed in 2020. “It’s something you can’t run from. You have to sit and find a way through [the sting of the tattoo gun]. I find a real calm, a real peace to it.”
Her collection includes two pentagrams inked into the crooks of her arms, a dragonfly on her left foot, an open birdcage, her son’s name and surname on her wrist, and a massive depiction of the Hindu god Ganesha across her back.
“I’ll be outside a tattoo shop and hear the needle and think, ‘I could just get a little one that nobody would see …’” Headey admitted of her spiraling fixation.
Image source: iamlenaheadey, Gregg DeGuire
#4 Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner has shown much restraint in her ink choices.
She sports two nearly imperceptible dots on either side of her index finger, which her tattoo artist says means “the little things matter.”
She wisely skipped the whole lover’s name scrawled across a ribcage trend in favor of something safer: matching hearts with her best friend’s wife, Hailey Bieber.
Hailey went bold in red, while Kendall stuck with her apparent favorite, white.
But even restraint has its limits. Jenner waded into the treacherous waters of rash inking when she had the word “meow” etched inside her bottom lip.
“It was literally the first thing that came to my mind,” she confessed to Ellen DeGeneres in 2018.
On the back of her heel, she also sports what might be the world’s tiniest boot tattoo.
The takeaway? If you keep your permanent decisions to a minimum, maybe regret stays minimal too.
Or maybe tattoos just aren’t really Kendall’s thing—not the way cosmetic enhancements seem to be, and she has been open about regrets in that area.
Image source: kendalljenner, jonboytattoo
#5 Selena Gomez
The recently wedded Selena Gomez may be more inked than you think. Men’s lifestyle outlet Net Luxury claims that the actress has at least 17 tattoos.
One of them, an arrow that sits below her thumb, she showed off with her friend Julia Michaels. Another is a musical note in the crook of her right arm.
She has the Roman numerals LXXVI on the nape of her neck, and a cross on her collarbones, along with the word “RARE” behind her right ear, which may or may not have something to do with her namesake makeup brand.
Her right hip she dedicated to religion with a pair of praying hands, a rosary, and the line: “God Who Strengthens Me”.
The actress sports a large pink rose on her back and the phrase “Love Yourself First,” perhaps a lesson from her long sensationalized break-up with Justin Bieber, whom she claimed did not care for her when needed most, along with instances of “jealousy, infidelity, and difficulties related to each of their careers.”
Image source: selenagomez, bangbangnyc
#6 Scarlett Johansson
Scarlet Johansson is said to sport eight high-definition ink pieces, including a rose stem creeping up her back.
Next to it, the picturesque depiction of a lamb, interlocking circles on her ankle, a bracelet with Thor’s hammer on her right hand, and an Avengers icon on her right bicep.
This little marking she got from celebrity tattoo artist Josh Lord, with five other actors from the Avengers franchise.
Robert Downey Jr. offered some insights into the decision when he told Entertainment Weekly:
“It was Johansson’s idea.”
“She and [Christopher Robert] Evans did it in New York. Then, their New York guy, Josh Lord, who is amazing, flew out to Los Angeles. He did me, did [Jeremy Lee] Renner, and then we just bullied [Chris] Hemsworth into doing it.”
Another tattoo spotted on Johansson is an owl in flight on the right side of her ribcage, along with a horseshoe and the words “Luck You” next to it.
She also has a sunrise on her left arm.
She told an outlet that she had the ink for a while and described it as something that makes her happy. Like with her other pieces, she refused to divulge its meaning.
“Some things have to remain private,” she declared.
Image source: theoutset, Theo Wargo
#7 Demi Lovato
Multi-hyphenate Demi Lovato’s body is a collage of her ideals.
The words love, fear, free, and survivor appear across her skin, along with the sentences “Love will live forever in the infinite universe” and “Buddy was here,” in memoriam of her beloved pooch.
Then, there are the Roman numerals down the left of her ribcage, which speak to her past, and as a testimony to her Christian faith, she has “Let go & Let God” inscribed.
As the saying goes, “put alpha first.” Lovato has a small testimony to this ideal with the word “me” on her wedding finger.
On her left shoulder blade, she sports the line “Now I’m a Warrior,” along with “faith” below her right elbow.
After she completed her stint in rehab in 2011, the actress got the words “stay” and “strong” across her wrists.
On the outer part of her left hand is “III,” supposedly commemorating her father’s passing in 2013.
We’re not done; she has pictures too.
A life-like spider sits on the right side of her scalp, spreading its long appendages; a dream catcher rests on the same side of her ribcage; and a set of lips appears below her left hand.
On that same index finger, she sports a rose, which is said to symbolize her battles with substances and staying sober.
On the same limb, she has a flock of swallows and a cross on her hand, along with an outline of Africa that no one seems to know the significance of.
As if to complete the theme, Lovato’s got a lion’s head on the back of that same hand.
Perhaps the most detailed piece on the actress is on her back just below her neck—a depiction of three doves carrying a sleeping woman, as a testament to “rebirth,” she says.
Image source: ddlovato, _dr_woo_
#8 Ariana Grande
The ditzy, happy-go-lucky Cat Valentine actress is covered from head to toe with ink—or at least this is Popsugar’s assessment.
In an interview with her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo on Kelly Clarkson, she admitted adding even more “designs” to an already burgeoning collection of 50-plus markings.
And she insists: each and every one of them has a significant meaning for her. These meaningful tattoos include phrases like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “Sweetener”, and “7 Rings” as a nod to her music career.
However, for Grande, meaning is a moving target.
She has already started zapping, editing, and replacing some—like her infamous 7 Rings palm tat, which was mistranslated into Japanese as “small grill.”
Mortifying for anyone, but especially awkward when you’re a proud vegan.
Image source: arianagrande
#9 Harry Styles
The former One Direction singer has so many tattoos that we won’t even pretend to list them all.
When he takes off his shirt, it’s less “body art” and more lost and found notice board—a chaotic mosaic of random stamps fighting for space.
Naturally, he insists each one is meaningful. Sure. If two birds on either side of his chest and a giant butterfly on his stomach scream deep symbolism to you, who are we to argue?
On his left bicep, he doubled down with two hearts; one a simple outline, the other looking like it belongs in a medical textbook.
Then, there’s the sketch of a 16th-century ship, three nails, and a Bible tossed in for good measure (maybe hinting at some religious flair).
Cosmopolitan once attempted the impossible and tried cataloging his ink. Their findings? The Google symbol (because why not), James Bond’s gambler’s mantra “17 Black,” his parents’ birthdates, and the inspirational quote “you booze, you lose.”
Somewhere in the mess, you’ll also find ferns, clasped hands, a rose, a guitar, and “Jackson,” – a tribute to his godson – all drowning in the ink storm.
“Anyone who says tattoos don’t hurt is a liar!” he declared back in 2012, according to Press Party.
Clearly, pain hasn’t slowed his dependency on the needle.
Image source: Dave J Hogan, harrystyles
#10 Ed Sheeran
Singer Ed Sheeran, known for his genre-blending sounds, has exploited his pale skin to the maximum when it comes to tattoos.
His upper torso is a mosaic of nearly every color available to the artist, from the tiger-orange mane of the lion in the center of his chest to the metallic-blue wings on either side of it.
Down his arms, the print-like cartoon pixel designs depict puzzle pieces and paw prints, while down his torso are depictions of a castle wall, a keyhole, a blossoming tree, and a ghost.
But the internet is not entirely impressed.
Critical netizens say Sheeran’s artist should be arrested and charged with criminal negligence.
Others feel that Sheeran is solely responsible for his body and that it “looks like he’s been left unsupervised with a pack of felt tip pens and some toddlers.”
But Sheeran is not fazed.
“People say when they see my tattoos that I look like a melted crayon, so that’s interesting. I guess this is just my eight year-old self coming out,” he said in a 2017 interview.
Image source: teddysphotos
#11 David Beckham
It’s no surprise that the legendary Man U footballer would become a feature in Men’s Health Magazine.
It was not because he was overly healthy, but rather for his whopping sixty-plus permanent skin inscriptions.
The man gives meaning to the term sleeve in tattooing. He portrays imagery with impeccable detail and fading, slogans and scripts in various languages, and then, of course, the names of his offspring, Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz.
He has also allocated skin to his parents, a saying from Confucius, and an American First Nation chief.
And for someone who has called the jinx by having his significant other’s name (Victoria) inked onto their body, he and the former Spice Girls singer have prevailed through thick and thin.
He also has tributes to his football jersey numbers with the inscription “723”.
In 2023, two years after the initial Men’s Health feature, People reported that the then 48-year-old had 88 tattoos.
When asked for a reason, he simply said: “I just like them.”
Image source: davidbeckham
#12 Susan Sarandon
At 78, acting legend Susan Sarandon is not exactly where most Gen Z-ers would go looking for tattoo inspiration.
But she’s been quietly building a collection that even hardcore ink aficionados struggle to decode.
Back in 2017, at age 72, Sarandon was featured in Inked Magazine showing off a fresh design tucked discreetly on the inside of her left arm: One so cryptic that fans and tattoo sleuths still haven’t figured it out.
Two years later, she returned to the studio for a piece that was no easier to decode.
“This is the genius who designed my last two tattoos,” she said of its author, a New York celebrity tattoo artist, Joshua Lord.
Along with the delicate “bracelets” encircling her wrists, these little markings pale in comparison to her more conspicuous work: A 10-inch chain running from the nape of her neck down her spine.
As for why she continues to add to her canvas, Sarandon keeps it simple:
“I’ve only got my body for a few more years anyway.”
Image source: Cindy Ord, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
#13 Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg created a stir at the 2025 Academy Awards with what was reported to be a rare show of skin.
Her Christian Siriano number, which was described as “liquid”, left her shoulders exposed, revealing a massive dragon tattoo.
While awed by the sighting, celeb watchers noted that it was not the first time she had picked the fashion house and the off-the-shoulder style.
So then how, pray tell, was it the first time we saw the tattoo?
Image source: Kayla Oaddams/GA
#14 Billie Eilish
Style outlet Byrdie reports that Bad Guy singer Billie Eilish has five tattoos, though for years she pretended she had zero.
Among them: a dragon that slithers up from her right thigh onto her stomach, proving that subtlety has never been her aesthetic.
Come to think of it, Billie once vowed never to let fans see any of her tattoos.
But vows are made to be broken, aren’t they?
She shattered that promise in the most glamorous way possible: A 2021 Vogue photoshoot where she showed them off like she had never sworn secrecy.
Another piece she eventually unveiled is a delicately inked fairy on her left hand, which she told Vanity Fair was inspired by her favorite childhood book, Fairyopolis.
“They’re like my little guardian angel fairies,” she said in 2021.
By 2023, Billie had fully abandoned tattoo modesty and posted a photo of herself mid-ink session.
Lying on her stomach, her entire spine was exposed, sporting a bold piece that ran from her neck to her beltline.
So much for privacy.
And then there are the cursive words “hard” and “soft” near her navel.
“I’m a pretty extremist person… I want two things at once. So I thought that was a really good way to describe me, and I love that it’s not possible,” she told Rolling Stone in April 2024.
One of her most personal designs is a simple ribcage piece that reads: “Eilish.” Minimalist? Sure, but the meaning is not.
“I love myself,” she declared in way of an explanation.
Image source: billieeilish
#15 Carson Daly
The world got the lowdown on MTV’s TRL host Carson Daly’s hidden art when he revealed it on TODAY back in 2014.
“This one is for my son,” he explained, pointing to a customized playing card. Another was for his father and grandfather, while a fourth simply read “NYC”—which he claimed was in memory of 9/11.
His stepdad didn’t escape the needle either: Daly swapped out the whiskey brand Cutty Sark for “Curly Sark” as a nod to his stepdad’s nickname…and because nothing says family like honoring Dad’s drink order.
In true equal-opportunity fashion, Daly added his niece Jaden Patricia’s name, noting that “Patricia” was also his mother’s handle.
But then came the cardinal misstep: Inking a girlfriend’s name.
When said relationship tanked, Daly gave his tattoo artist free rein on a cover-up solution.
Daly recalled the conversation, saying, “Later, when I finally looked at my leg, I asked him what it was. He said, ‘It’s a crab claw coming out of a pocket knife,’” Daly recalled.
To be fair, it does look like “a crab claw coming out of a clasp knife”—if you squint and look very quickly.
Image source: carsondaly, NBC
#16 Kelly Osbourne
It appears those privy to Kelly Osbourne’s skin-deep secrets stopped counting at 19, and the designs they checked off were things like a teardrop on her finger, a heart on her knuckles, and a star on her neck.
She also has tributes to her late father, her brother Jack, her mother, and even the unrelated American multi-hyphenate, Joan Rivers.
While not fully committing to the get-your-boyfriend’s-name-inked trend that seems to jinx relationships, she got dangerously close when she and Bert McCracken and the two went for matching heart tattoos.
In line with the unwritten rules of inking, they split a year later. He broke up with her on Valentine’s Day.
Her most questionable tattoos? Apparently, the two skull-and-bones depictions on her feet; one with a lightning bolt, the other with a bow.
Even her mother, Sharon Osbourne, went ballistic when she saw it and wanted to know if Kelly was a pirate before banning her from getting any more.
These days, Kelly admits to regretting most of her ink and has already started lasering one with the word “lovely” off.
“I have found myself saying ‘no pain no gain’ or ‘pain is beauty!’ However the bigger lesson I have taken away from this horrendously painful experience is THINK BEFORE YOU INK!…” she confessed in a blog post (via Closer).
Image source: Jeffrey Mayer, kellyosbourne
#17 Rihanna
Rihanna, according to People, has more than 25 tattoos—most of them attesting to North African history and spiritual themes.
The 18th dynasty Egyptian icon of beauty, Nefertiti, sits on her ribcage. Isis, the goddess of magic, motherhood, and fertility from the same culture, spreads across her diaphragm, and a falcon rests neatly on her ankle.
Her body also bears Arabic, Tibetan, and English mantras. Then, in a nod to the streets and to the man who bridged them with music, she carries a tribute to Tupac Shakur’s Thug Life.
On the opposite side, things get edgier: the tiny silhouette of a handgun, which she reportedly dragged her tattoo artist out of bed in the middle of the night for (hopefully not at gunpoint).
Her feet tell their own story. Behind her left heel, she sports a skull-and-bones-with-a-bow—in line with Kelly Osbourne’s playful rebellion, and trailing down her back is a constellation of stars that cascade like cosmic jewelry.
Rihanna has also collected a personalized Māori symbol in New Zealand, a henna-styled design on her right hand, and more.
And for anyone tempted to critique, she has the final word on the inside of her right index finger; a simple design that reads—“Shhh…”
Image source: badgalriri
#18 Kaley Cuoco
This Big Bang Theory alum seems to have collected all the classic tattoo mistakes, but in a… let’s say, “conservative” fashion.
Yes, she even has the notorious tramp stamp. Although nothing more than a Chinese symbol, true to tradition, it sits squarely on her lower back.
“I was trying to be cool. I know, so dumb,” she admitted on Ellen in 2013. Cuoco has not revealed what it means—and honestly, we’re not sure she knows either.
Which would be fitting for a decision made by her “dumb” 17-year-old self (her words, not ours).
Then came the even bigger blunder: a wedding date in large Roman numerals inked across her back, because apparently that’s her canvas for bad ideas.
When her marriage with tennis player Ryan Sweeting ended, she scrambled for a cover-up, and went with a giant moth. “I had to cover it with the wings, which I think turned out OK,” she reflected later.
But did she learn her lesson? Of course not. She went on to tattoo her new fiancé Tom Pelphrey’s name on her finger.
She’s also inked a paper plane on her leg with her Flight Attendant castmates and the word Boop with co-star Zosia Mamet.
Add to that a heart on her finger – believed to be for fiancé Tom – and one “sophisticated” mark on her left side that she refuses to explain, which usually means it’s either deeply personal… or deeply embarrassing… or she too does not know what it means.
Image source: kaleycuoco
#19 Tom Holland
Tom Holland has kept his tattoos minimal, reserving ink for two things close to his heart: His career-defining role as Spider-Man and his fiancée, Zendaya.
Holland first stepped into the Spider suit in 2016, and a year later, he celebrated the moment with an arachnid tattoo on the instep of his foot.
“I always wanted to get that Spider-Man symbol on the bottom of my foot, but I just never thought I would get it done,” Holland told ABC 10’s Mark Allen at the time.
The process wasn’t painless. “It hurt so much,” he admitted. And because tattoos on the sole fade quickly, he had to get it redone twice. “The third time he really sort of had to drive it home,” Holland said.
The ink suggests that Holland plans to be a Spider-Man lifer: He’s expected to reprise the role in two upcoming 2026 installments.
Spider-Man isn’t the only thing etched into his skin. On November 27, 2024, just before Holland and Zendaya went public with their engagement, they got complimenting tattoos: He a “Z,” she a “T.”
Since then, paparazzi have spotted her tribute on her ribcage, but Holland’s marking is yet to be seen.
It begs the questions: Where is it? Did he even get one? Or is it hidden as cleverly as the spider under his foot?
As one Facebook commenter asked when the news broke: “Is the tattoo in the room with us?”
Image source: tomholland2013, BackToTheMovies
#20 Noah Centineo
When Noah Centineo played the protagonist in The Recruit, no one got the “I’ve got a tattoo on my head” vibe from him.
The actor, famously protective of his privacy, has a family of bears inked across his scalp.
He also carries a permanent reminder of his cast camaraderie from Warfare.
Along with Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Kit Connor, Will Poulter, Michael Gandolfini, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Cosmo Jarvis, Centineo got a tattoo that read: “call on me.”
Beyond that, the actor has admitted to six more designs on his body, but true to form, he hasn’t revealed what they are or where they are.
Fans, however, have pieced together a bit of the puzzle, and an Instagram collage suggests the hidden ink includes a pen and journal, a UFO, and script lines across his upper thighs.
Image source: Taylor Hill, Backgrid/VidaPress
#21 Jwoww
Jenni ‘JWoww’ Farley from Jersey Shore debuted her art at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
Thirty at the time, she showed off an impressive, colorful compilation of Disney characters.
But her take on the fuzzy fantasy brand’s stars was nothing if not dark.
“I took my four favorite Disney love stories and flipped them so they are more rooted in reality,” claimed the then 30-year-old.
“So with Ariel and Eric, Eric is looking away like he wants nothing to do with her, and Ariel is looking at him with desperate puppy eyes,” she elaborated.
“For Beauty and the Beast, he is a real beast. Sleeping Beauty overdosed and is [deceased]. Her prince is crying over her because he knows that he pushed her to that limit,” her explanation continued.
“And Cinderella’s prince is beating her. To me, that is the reality of relationships, they are crazy and take hard work — not that happily ever after bulls**t,” per US Weekly.
We’re not entirely sure if JWoww was seeing anyone at the time. You know… Like a life coach, psychiatrist, or maybe even an exorcist…
Image source: Jamie McCarthy, jwoww
#22 Cheryl Cole
This Girls Aloud band member has eight designs, including a thinly inked twirl on her chest that is said to be a Buddhist sign representing a winding road to progress, a tiny red heart below the nail bed of her right hand’s middle finger and a tribal tattoo on her right hand that allegedly speaks to change on a daily basis.
Like many others, she made the cardinal error of getting inked for love with a “Mrs C” on the back of her neck as a nod to her then football player spouse, Ashley Cole, in 2006.
The marriage did not survive the jinx.
Be that as it may, Cheryl is unrepentant and will not get the tattoo removed.
“I’m not ashamed of my marriage, it’s a period in my life,” she told The Guardian in 2006.
The vines and a treble clef on the singer’s right thigh are said to speak to her music career.
Her biggest work, however (big in many senses of the word), is the rose array covering her lower back and behind.
Unfortunately, the meaning behind it is nowhere near as big: “English roses are my favorite flowers,” she tweeted in the way of explanation in 2013.
It must be noted that the massive floral design started out as a flower on her left butt cheek in 2007.
Also drowned out by the massive bouquet is a–as she put it–“deeply personal” butterfly tramp stamp and what, in 2002, looked like an unfinished outline of a massive succulent plant.
At this rate, Cheryl’s back could double as Kew Gardens: Lush, overgrown, and full of stories she is refusing to prune.
Image source: Dave Benett, nikkohurtado
#23 Justin Theroux
Justin Theroux loves animals, particularly his two rescue dogs.
In an interview with Jonathan Van Ness at the 2018 New York Vulture Festival, he explained how that love influenced his most significant piece.
“So I had two dogs, both rescues, pitbulls, pitbull mix, and when they [passed away], I dedicated half my back to one and half of my back to the other,” he told Van Ness.
But Justin, that is a rat!?
He had a preplanned explanation for this, too.
“So, it’s a picture of a rat, because my dog used to kill rats in Washington Square Park, which is not fun. It was horrible,” he said.
“She was really good at it. I mean, it’s doing a service to New York also.
“Oh, and then a pigeon. A New York pigeon and a rat.”
Justin, are you sure it was not the pigeons and the rats that were your pets?
The latter is one of Theroux’s many undocumented and unexplained tattoos, another of which reads “Never Never Again.”
Image source: Justin Theroux, Vulture
#24 Chris Evans
“I really like tattoos, but the problem is, when you wear a short-sleeve shirt in a movie, that’s an extra hour in the makeup chair. It’s not worth it,” Chris Evans told Hot Hits in a 2024 interview.
“I’m all for tattoos, but just somewhere they can be hidden.” And so, the ink designs keep a low profile on the Marvel star’s body.
The man has an eagle on his chest which he says is in memoriam for a friend. Hints by celeb artist, Josh Lord, suggest the actor got the piece in 2016.
Then he has a quote by spiritual mentor Eckhart Tolle which reads:
“When you lose touch with your inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself, when you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
“I really like Eckhart Tolle,” Evans defended the choice.
An animal lover, Evans adopted a dog named Dodger and then got the dog’s name tatted on his chest.
Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live! three years later, he described the relationship between him and his hound as the “purest” in his life.
On Evans’ left shoulder, he shows off a taurus tattoo. He told USA Today in 2004 that it was a tribute to his mother, Lisa Capuano, who was born on May 21.
On his right shoulder, he had the Chinese symbol for family. Speaking to Glamour in 2012, he suggested that the figure summed up his entire ink theme.
Then, in 2016, the cursive word “loyalty” became exposed thanks to his provocative Gucci campaign with Evan Rachel Wood.
“They’re pretty much all for family,” he told Glamour previously. Then, according to a 2020 Page Six report, Evans had the Chinese symbol on his right shoulder removed.
The familial sentiment remains near and dear, as can be seen from the “SCS” piece on his right ankle, which became unclothed on the set of A Many Splintered Thing in 2012.
Evans says the letters stand for Scott, Carly, and Shanna, who are his siblings, per People.
The Marvel star’s Avengers emblem is perhaps a testimony to another kind of family, as he, Scarlet Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, and their tattoo artist all have the design.
Image source: chrisevans
#25 Jesse Williams
The sneak peeks offered by the Grey’s Anatomy star into his ink collection are few and far between.
In August 2022, the multimedia entertainment outlet, Just Jared, posted images of the star in shorts scouting California locations for what was then described only as a “new project.”
The actor drew attention two years prior for a grainy picture of his back uploaded to Instagram, showcasing a newly inked pair of angel’s wings.
The picture has since been removed.
Image source: ijessewilliams
#26 Bryan Cranston
Breaking Bad is good; ask the 10.3 million viewers who tuned in for the show’s finale.
Actor Bryan Cranston thinks so too; ask the “Br-Ba” symbol on the inside of his finger which not only represents bromine and barium, but is also the logo for the show.
On a 2024 installment of Late Night With Seth Meyers, Cranston recalled how it happened.
“[On] the last day of production, 11 years ago, I got a tattoo on my hand.”
Apparently, a party was thrown to mark the end of production, and a tattoo artist was invited.
“Invited,” they say, as if said tattoo artist was merely one of the guests, which is unlikely given the fact that they had the tools of their trade with them.
A boozy party, an emotional cast that are unlikely to see each other again, and a tattoo artist.
What could possibly go wrong?
And so Cranston and co-star Paul Aaron got matching tattoos, per ET Online.
This was Cranston’s first. We do not know if he started building a collection.
Image source: bryancranston
#27 Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s 24 tattoos caught Cosmopolitan’s attention. Especially the “giant spine tattoo”, a “tribute to the House of Gucci,” and the cherub at the back of her hairline.
Her left shoulder blade is a collage of seemingly unrelated stamps, including one with a heart and the word “dad,” a bouquet of daisies, a flock of swallows, and a long-nailed hand bearing a string of beads, not to mention a design that could represent a lotus of some kind.
Below the same arm, on her upper ribcage, the songstress has the words “mother monster,” which may or may not be related to the claw on her left shoulder blade, which has since been described as a “monster hand.”
On the arm itself, in the region of the inner bicep, she completes her fascination with monsters with the words “little monsters.” According to Cosmo, she is referring to her fans with this phrase.
Right above the latter is the German script by Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke.
When translated, it reads: “In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would [expire] if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write?”
In the middle of this text is the date her aunt Joanne Stefani Germanotta succumbed to lupus (12-18-1974).
Tellingly, the singer’s fifth studio album, released in 2016, is named Joanne, and the name is tattooed inside her left elbow.
The heart tattoo on her left shoulder, which bears the word “dad,” is a tribute to her father’s open-heart surgery.
Other designs on the singer include an image of David Bowie on the left side of her ribcage, along with an anchor.
Also on her left shoulder blade is a tribute to her survival of an indecent assault, and then flowing down and across her back is the depiction of a massive black moth.
The moth was inked in time for the 2020 Grammys but was missing two years later when she debuted a rose and stalk running down her spine.
Lady Gaga has a few tributes to her career too, which include a treble clef on her lower back (reportedly her first tattoo ever), and a musical staff with the letters G-A-G-A.
On her right bicep is a trumpet, and on the side of her left arm lies the word “Art Pop.”
Lest we forget, the unicorn high on her left thigh and the peace symbol on her right wrist.
All in all, Cosmo counted 24—and this was in July 2024.
Image source: ladygaga, ladygaga
#28 Britney Spears
Once upon a time, Hollywood’s heartthrob, Britney Spears, had nine known tattoos, including the Hebrew script on her neck—ink she got while overseas, said to be tied to the Kabbalah faith and translates to mean “healing.”
She also has two designs that have been spotted peeking over her bikini line: one, reportedly, a starburst with no outline, and the other a Chinese symbol.
Testifying to but not fully embracing the era when the tramp stamp was all the rage, hers is a delicate fairy positioned just above her beltline.
On her left foot is a butterfly with vines—so small that photographers had to zoom in until the image became distorted.
Then there are the red lips below her right wrist, the dice on the inside of her arm, and the triangle on the same hand.
Image source: John Shearer, Jeff Kravitz
#29 Mena Suvari
Actress and producer Mena Suvari shot to fame in 1999 thanks to American Beauty and American Pie.
Unlike some celebs who treat their bodies like scrapbook projects (looking at you, Harry Styles), Suvari keeps things minimal: just two known tattoos.
But don’t mistake the lack of quantity for subtlety.
One of those two is a full statement piece; a roaring male lion stretching from her lower neck down her back, paired with the phrase “word, sound, power,” which she debuted in 2008.
Her second tattoo, on her chest, has never been fully revealed to the public, which just adds to the mystery… or maybe the regret.
Suvari has never explained either tattoo, leaving the internet guessing wildly.
Temporary ink site Tattoo 4 A Week didn’t hold back, claiming her as their poster child for “Odd & Unexplainable Celebrity Tattoos.”
Honestly, fair.
Image source: Jon Kopaloff, Camilla Morandi/Corbis
#30 Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck’s back is covered by one enormous, colorful phoenix.
It was first spotted in 2015, but when questioned about it by Extra TV’s Mario Lopez, the Argo actor fibbed, saying it was a temporary piece for a movie role.
In 2018, he’d dropped the act, telling Ellen DeGeneres: “It’s not something that I sort of kept private.
“It wasn’t like I was doing photoshoots or whatever — we were two hours north of the city on an island in Hawaii, and we didn’t know the paparazzi were there. So they got a picture of my tattoo.”
Affleck got the marriage jinx, too.
Back when he and Jennifer Lopez were still an item, they both got two downward-pointing arrows crossing at the center with the letters “B” for Ben and “J” for Jennifer.
J’LO is said to have gotten rid of hers.
On Affleck’s left shoulder, he sports a cross that’s since been given a floral background. It was first spotted in the 2003 film Gigli when he acted alongside his now ex-wife J-Lo.
On his right shoulder, he bears a circular, dreamcatcher-like design. His best explanation for this to date is as he once told People, “I was young.”
“It was fun and cool. I’m sorry now, but it is a good lesson in decisions that have important and long repercussions.”
Judging by the size of that phoenix, some lessons take up a lot of real estate.
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