Category Archives: Celebrity Tattoo Meanings

Tattoos are very much a part of our culture and an easy way to change someones identity. Having ink added or removed will change ones appearance forever. Take a look at some before and after pictures of tattoo artwork as well as tattoo alterations.

Angelina Jolie Tattoos and Their Meanings

Angelina Jolie is a famous American actress and has been cited in many celebrity news, magazines and websites as one of the world’s “most beautiful woman”.  She has stared in countless movies and won acclaim for her acting skills, as well as her work as a U.N. Representative.  But one aspect of Angelina that  fascinates many of her fans is her love for getting tattoos and exactly what they mean to her.

“They’re body art. I don’t think it’s abnormal that someone who spends their life in other skins wants to claim their own by marking things on it that matter to them.” -Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie’s very first tattoo was inked in 1993 and she got a Japanese Kanji symbol for “Death” on her left shoulder blade. She said it served as a reminder to her to live life to the fullest. She has since had the tattoo removed and replaced by a magical Pali incantation written in Khmer, the native language of Cambodia. She got this tattoo to protect she and Maddox, her son, from bad luck and avoid accidents. It reads:

May your enemies run far away from you.
If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always.
Your beauty will be that of Apsara. (a celestial dancer in Khmer mythology)
Wherever you may go, many will attend, serve and protect you, surrounding you on all sides.

The tattoo was done by Sompong Kanphai in in a hotel in Pathum Thani, Thailand, the same tattoo artist who did her “Bengal Tiger Tattoo”

 

The next tattoo Angelina got while on a trip to Amsterdam in 1996. She soon regretted the tattoo, and had this to say. “I dropped my pants in a tattoo parlor in Amsterdam. I woke up in a waterbed with this funky-looking dragon with a blue tongue on my hip. I realized I made a mistake, so a few months later I got a cross to cover it. When my pants hang low, it looks like I’m wearing a dagger !”

Angelina Jolie had the cross tattoo done the day before she married Johnny Lee Miller. In her own words: “It was all symbolic, and it was a good thing, nothing dark.”

Next to it is a phrase in Latin. “Quod me nutrit me destruit”, meaning “What nourishes me, destroys me.”

 

Probably her most visible tattoo removal was the first dragon Angelina had tattooed on her left upper arm in 1997. In 2000 she later added the name of her second husband “Billy Bob” but had it removed after their divorce. In an interview during the time of the tattoo removal procedure she said, “I’ll never be stupid enough to have a man’s name tattooed on me again.” It took 5 visits to the tattoo removal clinic to erase the Asian dragon.

Angelina now has the geo-coordinate tattoos (expressed in the degrees, minutes, seconds notation) of where her children were born :
N 11º 33′ 0″ E 104º 51′ 00″
N 9º 2′ 0″ E 38º 45′ 0″
S 22º 40′ 26″ E 14º 31′ 40″
N 10° 46′ 0″ E 106º 41′ 40″
N 43º 41′ 21″ E 07º 14′ 28″

In 2011 Angie added her partner Brad Pitt’s geo-coordinate as well as a flourish around the upper corner.

angelina jolie

 

On the inside of Angelina’s right forearm was a tattoo of lines she and former husband Billy Bob had designed together. She has since  had the design covered with an Arabic script tattoo that means “Strength of Will”.

angleina arabic cover up tattoo

 

The gothic lettering tattoo just under Angelina’s neck reads “Know Your Rights” and is the title of the song by The Clash, one of her favorite bands. According to Angelina, it is a slogan of empowerment which she described as “humanitarian, but a little punk rock”. She had this tattoo done in 2004 and has since added some flourishes below this tatt.

On the inside of Angelina’s right palm is the letter “M” which is a tribute to her mother, Marcheline.

angelina's hand tattoo

 

Another one of Angie’s early tattoo’s was that of a Japanese symbol for “Courage”. She and ex husband Johnny Lee Miller had matching tattoos done and that is why she chose to have it removed, it didn’t feel like her own.

On Angelina’s inner right thigh is the name “Whiskey Bravo” , which represents her partner Brad Pitt’s initials in the aviation alphabet, as Jolie and Pitt are both licensed pilots.

 

Angelina’s left forearm now is emblazoned with many tattoos tied together with some fancy flourishes. The first is a coverup from where the “Courage” tattoo formerly was. In it’s place is a quote from famous author Tennesse Williams. “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.” She had this tattoo done in the presence of her mother, Marcheline Bertrand.  Here is how she describes what the quote means to her.

“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…So it’s kind of a prayer for everybody to find their happiness, to break out…Anything that makes us comfortable, those things are cages around us.”

She also has the roman numeral 13, because she does not believe in superstitions, and In 2009, it became XIII V MCMXL. Which translates to  13 may 1940, the date of Winston Churchill’s  famous speech, he said : “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

On Angelina Jolie’s inside left wrist is a rune style tattoo of the letter ‘h”. According to sources, it is to remind her of her brother, James Haven whereas some say it is to signify her ex-boyfriend Timothy Hutton. Knowing Angelina’s disposition to laser off any reminders of her past relationships, the former meaning is more plausible.

angelina jolie arm tattoo

 

Angelina’s lower back is always a work in progress it seems and is now the location of her biggest pieces, the bengal tiger. She started out with two iroquois symbols in 1997, and later added a tribal dragon inked in 1998, and later a blue window.
The ‘window tattoo’ refers to her once held view on life: “Wherever I am, I find myself looking out of the window, wishing I was somewhere else.” The window has since been covered up by the tail of the Bengal Tiger. She had the window covered because she no longer subscribed to that view and she felt that she is “where she wants to be right now”.

angelina jolie lower back tattoos

This 12-inch long, 8-inch wide Bengal tiger tattoo on her lower back was done in Bangkok in 2004, during a 2 hour session by tattoo artist Sompong Kanhphai who also blessed it by chanting an ancient hymn. Sompong also did her Khmer tattoo and Angelina said that she felt that her life had been filled with luck after she received the first tattoo from him. She had the tiger tattoo done to celebrate her Cambodian citizenship.

According to press report, it took the tattoo artist, 2 hours to complete the design. It took two hours to complete the tattoo because Angelina opted for a traditional Thai tattooing style. Purely by hand, the tattoo artist maneuvered a long needle that glides inside a hollow tube, delicately inking the skin manually. While tattooing, the tattoo artist chanted ancient Buddhist hymn to bless the tattoo.

 

These are some more recent shots of Angelina Jolie’s additional flourishes she has added to her previous pieces.

angelina jolie brad pit tattoo

Angelina Jolie will forever be working on adding, removing, and covering up tattoos all over her famous body. What do you think of all that ink, does it work well for her?

Is Megan Fox Regretting getting Inked?

megan fox marilyn tattoo

Hollywood Hottie Megan Fox is well known for her love of tattoos, but it looks like she may have regretted one of her most prominent ones. On Megan’s right forearm is a tattoo of her idol Marilyn Monroe whom she had tattooed on herself to as a warning.

“I really admire Marilyn Monroe, but I would never try to emulate her. I got the tattoo as a warning,” she said in 2009. “It warns me not to let myself be treated so badly by the film industry so that it breaks me down.”

megan fox arm tattoo

The actress is life-long fan of Monroe, once saying that she was afraid she might die early like the screen legend.

“I basically read every book ever written about Marilyn Monroe,” Fox told Wonderland magazine in 2009. “I could end up like that because I constantly struggle with the idea that I think I’m a borderline personality – or that I have bouts of mild schizophrenia. I definitely think I have some kind of mental problem and I haven’t pinpointed what it is.”

Megan has eight known tattoos located all over her body and you can check out each ones location and individual meaning on our previous post HERE.

Megan Fox Tattoos and Their Meanings

megan fox tattoos

No doubt Megan Fox is passionate about her tattoos, but what exactly has she had inked on her skin and what do they each mean to her. During an interview Megan expressed that her tattoos are a way to say F.U. to Hollywood, here’s what she had to say.

“Every time I get a tattoo, it’s a little fuck-you to anyone who tells me not to. I like the way getting a tattoo feels. It’s weird to be part of Hollywood, which tries to control every aspect of people, from what they say to the color of their hair. And I like the way getting a tattoo feels. If I’m depressed, it’s nice to get one and deal with the pain. I have one all the way down to my ribs. It hurt, but it felt good like twisting a loose tooth. I’m not kidding when I say that if I ever lose a role because of my tattoos, I’ll quit Hollywood and go to work at Costco.” “Everyone hates them because people are so closed-minded about tattoos”

Megan Fox’s first tattoo was the one on the nape of her neck, she got it after a bad breakup when she was only 18. The tattoo is a Chinese symbol for strength done in calligraphy  and do to it’s location, is hidden in most of her public pictures.  “I got the Japanese symbol for strength on the back of my neck, which is pretty cheesy. I was really scared, but it didn’t hurt at all. So now I’m addicted.”

megan fox neck tattoo

 

Megan’s next tattoo is a star and moon symbol on her left inner ankle. “I have one on my ankle – an upside-down star and a moon because my dad used to read me a book when I was little that had a moon and star on the back.” This is Megan’s only tattoo with colored ink to date.

megan fox ankle tattoo

 

The tattoo on Megan Fox’s left wrist is not one of her favorites, a ying yang  tribal tattoo of two waves.  She has said that she regrets getting it because, “The guy was smoking weed while he tattooed me and he didn’t do it correctly. Now it’s nothing and I’m gonna get it removed. I was told he was a really amazing tattoo artist but he wasn’t on his game that night. He was distracted.”  The Transformers actress has hinted that she may have it removed in the future, although she has yet to start the process.

megan fox wrist tattoo

 

Megan also has a tattoo of her husband, Brian Austin Green’s name tattooed just south of her waist by what she refers to as her “pie”.  She got the tattoo in 2005 of her then fiance, and when asked what she would do if they ever broke up responded that she would keep it, because she could always name one of her children Brian!

Megan’s next tattoo is that of her idol Marilyn Monroe inked on her left forearm. She has said that the actress was the first person she was ever exposed to on the television and when she would come on the young girl would cry upon hearing her voice.  It was inked by famed LA artist Mark Mahoney, who has done Fred Durst and Angelina Jolie.
UPDATE 5/4/2011
Megan has started the process of removing her famous Marilyn Monroe Tatt! Click here for PICS…

megan fox marilyn tattoo

 

Megan’s next tattoo reads;  We will all laugh at gilded butterflies, and is located on her back, behind the right shoulder and is an Old English font.  The quote is adapted from a Shakespeare’s piece called King Lear. Here is the full quote by King Lear to his daughter, Cordelia:

No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’ th’ cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too-
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out-
And take upon ‘s the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies; and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

When Megan was asked what it meant, she replied  “to not get too caught up in Hollywood because people will end up laughing at you.”  Which in our opinion is very ironic considering the actresses  latest plastic surgery tweaks!

megan fox shoulder tattoo

 

The next textually prominent tattoo Megan got was a poem she wrote and tattooed it along her left ribcage. The poem reads: there once was a little girl who never knew love until a boy broke her HEART. This tattoo is also done in Old English and is a tribute to a friend who died in a car crash. She has said that the tattoo itself was very painful, but liked the whole process, and even compared it to pulling a tooth.

megan fox rib tattoo

 

Megan’s latest tattoo to date (April 2011) is a quote from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. Fox stated “I actually got a tattoo this is sort of in honor of [Mickey Rourke]. It’s on my ribs. I don’t know if it’s been photographed yet, but it’ll come out eventually, I’m sure. I just love him very much and think he’s very special.”

Megan Fox definitely cares what the public thinks of her regardless of her “F.U.” attitude. If she didn’t why would she be getting so many look altering plastic surgery procedures? Is this all part of a “I wanna be the next Angelina Jolie” plot? What do you think of all her ink, is it genuine, does it suit her, or is it superficial?