Here's What Your Favorite Celebrity Tattoos Actually Mean
It seems like everyone has a tattoo nowadays, in fact, you're probably in the minority if you don't have one. Hollywood in particular is no stranger to getting inked, and the stories behind famous people's tattoos are sometimes more interesting than their movies or songs.
There are of course special meanings behind celebrity tattoos, like Lea Michele's tribute to her former boyfriend Cory Monteith, and there are celebrity tattoo meanings that no one really knows the meaning behind. Uncover the truth behind Demi Lovato's lion (is she a fan of The Lion King?) and Paris Jackson's spoon (why does she not have a runaway dish to complement it?).
So sit back, relax, and don't flinch while voting up the coolest celeb tattoos you might be tempted to emulate. Here's what your favorite celebrity tattoos actually mean.
The sentiment in this tattoo is as sweet as honey. To honor the city of Manchester, England, and the victims of the bombing that took place at her concert, Ariana Grande and members of her tour all got bee tattoos. Bees are significant in Manchester. The city's textile mills in the 1800s were described as "hives of activity." The artist who did the tattoo came to the One Love Manchester benefit concert and completed the tattoos in the green room backstage.
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When Emma Stone found out her mother was cancer-free in 2008, she and Mama Stone decided to get matching tattoos dedicated to their favorite song, "Blackbird," by the Beatles. Stone wrote a letter to Paul McCartney, asking him if he'd be willing to design a tattoo for them, based on the song. McCartney happily obliged and the rest is wrist-ory. Only in La La Land can someone get a Beatle to design their tattoo.
Thor and his real-life wife Elsa Pataky share matching tattoos with five letters of the Runic alphabet that read C, E, I, T, and S. CEITS? In this case, it represents the two of them and their three kids: Chris, Elsa, India, Tristan, and Sasha. Sorry, brother Liam. No tattoo for you (yet!).
Their relationship started out in fiction, as their teenage characters on FOX's Glee. But soon Lea Michele and Cory Monteith took their romance off-screen, dating for nearly three years. Sadly, in 2013, Monteith passed away from an accidental drug overdose. To commemorate him as well as their relationship, Michele got a number 5 tattoo on her rib cage. Five was the number on his character's football jersey on the show.
In 2013, Nick Jonas got a tattoo that looked something like ancient hieroglyphics. What does it really mean? He gave the world a hint with his Instagram message: "God is greater than the highs and lows." Get it? G, then the greater-than symbol, then an arrow pointing up and an arrow pointing down.
Many women and men alike would love to be stuck to Ryan Gosling's body. Unfortunately, for them, a tree gets that distinction instead. When Gosling was little, his mother used to read him Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, the story about the give-and-take nature between a boy and a tree. Gosling commemorated this by getting a tattoo of the tree on his left arm. Although in a Vulture interview, he admitted that "The story's the worst."