Literature Tattoos

Ariana Grande

BACKGRID; Instagram / @arianagrande

Ariana Grande got a “lumos” tattoo on the side of her hand in May 2018. In the Harry Potter universe “lumos” is the charm for creating light in the dark.

This tattoo has many personal meanings for Ariana relating to her music, her life, and her relationship — all of which are deeply entwined. Her new album Sweetener has lots of references to brighter times ahead including the song “the light is coming.” Her tattoo also relates to a huge Dumbledore quote that Pete has on his forearm saying “Happiness can be found / Even in the darkest of times / If one only remembers to / Turn on the light.” So the lumos spell, turning on the light, is the key to inviting happiness into her life.

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Black Ink Happiness Harry Potter Literature Magic Movie Side of Hand Writing

Ariana Grande

YouTube / James Cordon; Instagram stories / @arianagrande

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Ariana Grande got a little outline of a lightning bolt inked behind her right ear in June 2018. She hasn’t talked about this tattoo, but it’s almost certainly based on her love of Harry Potter as she’s known to be a huge fan of the series.

Her fiance Pete Davidson has his own lightning bolt tattoo on his wrist, though his looks a lot different. He’s had his for a long time, but it was another one of his Harry Potter tattoos that caught Ariana’s eye the first time they met on the set of SNL. “I remember I looked off stage right…and I saw he had his sleeve [up] and I saw the Deathly Hallows [on his arm] and the tiny tip of a Dumbledore quote,” she told Zach Sang. “I thought he was cute so I was looking over anyway.” But the tattoos sealed her crush.

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Ariana Grande

YouTube / Nicki Minaj; Instagram / @arianagrande

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Ariana Grande has a tattoo of the word “always” on left side of her rib cage. The inking was revealed in the music video for “Bed” with Nicki Minaj in June 2018. It’s another token of her whirlwind relationship with fiance Pete Davidson and it appears to be written in his handwriting. Fans have compared it to a letter that he wrote to show that it’s a match.

Her choice of the word “always” is presumably a reference to the Harry Potter series. Both Ariana and Pete are huge fans and they’ve got other Harry Potter tattoos as well. He has the Deathly Hallows symbol on his arm, a lightning bolt on his wrist, and a long quote in the Harry Potter font. Ariana’s an even bigger fan and he’s mocked her encyclopedic knowledge of every minor detail in the books.

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Black Ink Boyfriend Eternity Handwriting Harry Potter Inspirational Literature Love Movie Underboob Writing

Grimes

Instagram / @hanatruly @grimes @delphinenoiztoy

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Grimes and her friend Hana Pestle aka HANA got semi-matching Lord of the Rings tattoos in July 2018. Artist Delphine Noiztoy came over to HANA’s house to tattoo both of them with writing in J.R.R. Tolkien’s elvish language. This was HANA’s very first tattoo and she got the Gandalf quote “and all turns to silver glass” on her thigh. Grimes got elven script on three of her fingers reading “Contradiction / Be ready for war / No shields allowed” which is not a direct quote from the book series.

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Delphine Noiztoy Duality Finger Friendship Literature Matching Movie Script Tengwar War Writing

Chiara Ferragni

Instagram / @chiaraferragni

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Chiara Ferragni has a very faint tattoo of the children’s book character The Little Prince (Il Piccolo Principe) on her left bicep. Her favorite Los Angeles artist Dr Woo was in Paris at the time and met up with Chiara in her hotel room to do the tattoo in March 2018.

The placement of her tattoo seems somewhat sideways, but it is oriented properly when she holds her arm outwards. The particular illustration that she chose features The Little Prince sitting in the grass with his star beaming down on him. It appears on the page where the prince tells the narrator “In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars will be laughing when you look at the sky at night..You, only you, will have stars that can laugh!”

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Julia Michaels

Instagram / @londonreese

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Julia Michaels celebrated the holidays with family in a unique way — she and her father got matching tattoos on December 28, 2017. They chose the Golden Snitch from the Harry Potter series inked in vibrant color. Julia’s tattoo is on her upper right arm and her dad’s is on the inside of his forearm.

Her father has come a long way with his attitude about tattoos since Julia started getting inked at age 18. Back then he was apprehensive about Julia getting tattoos and definitely didn’t want any for himself. But seeing Julia’s thoughtful works of art has made him change his mind. She told Universal Music:

The first tattoo that I ever got was this microphone when I was 18. My dad used to be very conservative. And when I told him I wanted to get a tattoo he [said] “I don’t know how I feel about that” but I [said] “you should come with me.” And when he came with me, he was so in love with the process that he now wants to get one with me.

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Julia Michaels

Instagram / juliamichael & mikeymontoyatattoo

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Radio host JoJo Wright arranged a date with Julia Michaels to get tattooed live on air on November 21, 2017. The iHeartRadio DJ brought one of his personal favorite tattoo artists Mikey Montoya to the 102.7 KIIS FM Los Angeles studios to tattoo him and Julia. Both of them planned their tattoos independently and they don’t match or even relate at all — JoJo got a Mickey Mouse/Jack Skellington mashup.

Julia’s tattoo says “protagonist + antagonist” representing the duality of life. As a songwriter she views everything through the perspective of stories. The protagonist is the main character in a story while the antagonist is someone who gets in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals. Antagonists can be evil villains, but they can also be ordinary people minding their own business whose own goals conflict with the protagonist’s. We are all sometimes the antagonist in other people’s life stories, often without realizing it, when we get a job or an award or even a boyfriend/girlfriend that they wanted for themselves.

She says that this tattoo “is basically me just embracing both sides of my personality.”

This tattoo marks the beginning of Julia began actively working on her second full sleeve. Up until this point the only tattoo on her left arm was the piano which she has had since 2012. But in the following months she covered her whole forearm.

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Cursive Duality Forearm Literature Mikey Montoya Writing

Bea Miller

YouTube / Roxette Arisa; Instagram / @beamiller @generation8tattoo

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Bea Miller added this handwritten tattoo between her ghost and maple leaf in December 2017. It says “we are all going” which is a line from the John Green novel Looking for Alaska. She shared a picture of the tattoo on her instagram along with a photo of her copy of the book, showing the context for the quote. The paragraph in the book says:

We are all going, I thought, and it applies to turtles and turtlenecks, Alaska the girl and Alaska the place, because nothing can last, not even the earth itself. The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we’d learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn’t fall apart, you’d stop suffering when they did.

It is about accepting that we cannot change our own mortality and the impermanence of everything and everyone around us.

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