Although not every tattoo has a purpose, many people get inked for specific reasons.
Below are 25 tattoos of famous people with significant meanings behind:
Here are 25 celebrity tattoos with special meanings behind them:
1. To commemorate her mother’s cancer-free status, Emma Stone got a pair of bird feet tattooed on her wrist — and her mother has one, too!
Source: Emma Mcintyre / Via Getty
The tattoo is inspired by their favorite Beatles song, “Blackbird.” After Emma wrote him a letter, Paul McCartney designed it for them.
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2. Dax Shepard dislikes wearing jewelry, so when he married Kristen Bell, he had a wedding band tattooed on his finger.
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The artwork contains all of their family members’ first initials: “K” for Kristen, “L” for Lincoln, and “D” for Dax and Delta, with Lincoln and Delta being the pair’s daughters.
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3. Ariana Grande had a bee tattoo in the back of her ear to remember the 22 people caught in a terrorist attack during her show in Manchester back in 2017.
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Since Victorian era, the bee has been an emblem of the city of Manchester.
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4. When Halsey was 16, they got a tattoo of a dagger with the number 13 in commemoration of a friend who passed away, by using a phony ID.
Source: Taylor Hill / Getty Images
“It’s a traditional flash tattoo, and it’s so gross now, but I kind of love that about it. It’s pink and turquoise because the friend that passed away had pink and turquoise hair for years, and it was his identifier. … The 13 is for January 3rd [1/3], and also an unlucky number. Also, I got it on Friday the 13th,” Halsey shared in an interview with iHeart Radio.
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5. Several months after talking about how “years of public mockery about [his] body by press and interviewers” prolonged his journey to self-love, Jonah Hill got a tattoo of the phrase “body love.”
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“I’m 37 and finally love and accept myself,” Hill shared in a post on Instagram.
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6. In honor of her grandma, Rihanna had the goddess Isis inked on her chest.
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She hoped her grandmother would be “always in and on [her] heart.”
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7. Selena Gomez has a tattoo on her arm with the date of her kidney transplant.
Source: Interscope Records / Via youtube.com
Francia Raisa, her friend, who helped her get the tattoo, was also the one to donate the kidney to her.
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8. Gigi Hadid has a tattoo of her kid Khai’s name in Arabic on her inner arm.
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
In fact, her daughter’s name remained in secret from everyone until she was four months old.
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
9. Travis Barker had his partner Kourtney Kardashian’s handwriting inked on his arm with the message “I love you.”
Source: @kourtneykardash / Via instagram.com
The tattoo was given to him by Kourtney herself.
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10. Demi Lovato got the word “survivor” tattooed on their neck a year after being hospitalized for a possible overdose.
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Demi said to Teen Vogue about their last year, ” I’ve been through a lot and I genuinely see a fighter. … I don’t see a championship winner, but I see a fighter and someone who is going to continue to fight no matter what is thrown their way.”
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11. Taye Diggs made a wonderful tattoo of his 5-year-old son Walker’s handwriting that reads, “I love daddy.”
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This one is also his most-loved tattoo.
Source: Kevork S. Djansezian / Getty Images
12. Joe Jonas has a rope tattoo on his arm to represent his family.
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He wrote on Instagram, “Two ropes (two parents) form four ends (four brothers).”
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13. On his arm, Kevin Jonas has a tattoo of his wife, Danielle. It’s a silhouette of her from the Jonas Brothers’ song video “Sucker.”
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He posted on Instagram, “So proud of this time in our life and getting to remember this with [Danielle] forever.”
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14. Justin Bieber’s first letters of his name was tattooed on Hailey Bieber’s left ring finger.
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Not long after they celebrated their first anniversary, she displayed her new tattoo.
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15. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, who feature in Game of Thrones, have matching tattoos on the date they were cast – 07.08.09.
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Sophie said to E!’s Giuliana Rancic, “With Thrones, we were like, if we make it all the way through, hopefully we could all get a matching wolf but we don’t know if we’re going to make it, so Maisie and I were like, ‘Let’s get this before anyone kills us.'”
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16. A few days before wrapping the finished Lord of the Rings film, co-stars Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, and Sir Ian McKellen all had identical tattoos of the word “nine” in Elvish. Because John Rhys-Davies refused to get the tattoo, his stunt double did it instead.
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It was one of those beautiful moments, where we all felt like we had been through this war, this battle, together in a lot of different ways,” Dominic said to Entertainment Weekly.
Source: Josh Gad / Via youtube.com
17. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s tattoo spanning his chest, shoulder, and neck pays homage to both his Black and Samoan cultures. Each sign represents a different aspect of his journey and ancestry.
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The Rock said in an interview for Once in a Lifetime: The Rock vs. John Cena, “It all comes down to three things, which is my family, and protecting my family, and having a very aggressive warrior spirit that you can’t hold down and that I will continue to fight and overcome — that piece is right over my heart.
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18. Dua Lipa has the name of the Kosovo area where her parents grew up, Sunny Hill, tattooed on her arm.
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“[Sunny Hill] became the name of our foundation and then the name of our festival. It holds a special meaning for me,” she told Refinery29.
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19. The birthplaces of Angelina Jolie’s children are represented by the coordinates tattooed on her arm.
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Brad Pitt‘s birthplace coordinates were previously tattooed on her arm, but that tattoo was reportedly erased after their divorce.
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20. Dove Cameron received a rose growing out of a pistol tattoo as a tribute to her Descendants co-star Cameron Boyce. The design was inspired by his anti-gun violence effort, Wielding Peace.
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“He wanted to get influential people holding things that looked like they were in the shape of a gun, but then it would be something artistic or peaceful,” Dove told Vogue.
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21. Miley Cyrus has her ear tattooed with the word “love”, “to block out all the crap that everyone throws into your ears.”
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According to Access Hollywood, Cyrus said, “[You’re] only supposed to hear the things coming from the people that genuinely love you. My dad was getting a new tattoo on his arm, and I thought it sounded cool.”
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22. Orlando Bloom received a Morse code tattoo of his kid Flynn’s name. Fans quickly discovered that, however, that it was mistakenly spelled as “Frynn.”
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He had the tattoo fixed and blamed it on a Pinterest blunder.
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23. David Beckham had one tattoo designed by his then 4-year-old daughter, who sketched a heart and a stick figure wearing a dress.
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On his neck, he has two more tattoos dedicated to her: her name and her nickname.
Source: Michael Reaves / Getty Images
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24. In celebration of her renowned Star Wars role, Carrie Fisher received a moon and stars tattoo on her ankle.
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She loves moons and stars, and she’s the ultimate space princess,” Billie Lourd, Carrie’s daughter, told InStyle.
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25. Finally, in honor of her mother, Billie Lourd received a replica of her mother’s tattoo.
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Jokingly, she told Instyle, “Hers was a really horrible version of mine, basically. Hers kind of looked like she got kicked in the leg…I got a version of that that’s classier, but not a bruise galaxy.”
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