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Celebrity Tattoos:

Tattoos aren’t just for sailors, “outcasts” and outlaws anymore. They’ve superceded bikers and gangsters, gone beyond heavy metal and punk rock bands. Royalty, rock stars, movie stars, sports icons, supermodels and heads of state have all adorned themselves with various types and kinds of body art. And, because of celebrities’ constant media exposure and sheer popularity, members of the masses are transforming and emulating their favorite celebrity tattoo designs.

Movie Stars

Tattoos have become accepted (and perhaps somewhat expected) on the big silver screen. Hollywood is all about scandal, so what was ever “taboo” is now in high demand. So it goes with tattoos, and other forms of body modification. No longer is it just the bad boys and bad girls brandishing body art, but also the wholesome family stars and supporting actors and actresses. All kinds of celebrities are wearing tattoos.

• Julia Roberts This star of Pretty Woman, Dying Young, Something to Talk About, and Erin Brokovich has a few tattoos. One is a Chinese kanji character surrounding a heart that she wears on her shoulder and a butterfly tattoo on her lower back.

• Sandra Bullock has a tribal tattoo design below her navel.

• Gillian Anderson (Scully on The X-Files) is also decorated. She has a turtle shell tattoo on her ankle and the Sanskrit script for “Everyday” is on her wrist.

• Drew Barrymore is quite notoriously tattooed with her own personal gallery of body art, and just a few of her designs include a cross, a butterfly, and angel tattoos. She also wears a blue moon smiling, and a bouquet of sweet peas on various areas of her body.

• Christina Ricci (Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Casper) wears a lion tattoo on her shoulder and a bat tattoo on her bikini line.

• Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series, Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo II) bears a Chinese kanji symbol on her hip, and has a beautiful pair of purple dragonfly tattoos on her lower back.

• Jennifer Aniston This Friends star has a small heart tattoo on her stomach.

• Christina Applegate This star of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead and the sitcom Married With Children has an apple tattoo design and a climbing vine tattoo.

• Pamela Anderson of Bay Watch has a few tattoos, including a barbed wire armband and a tribal design on her lower back.

• Alyssa Milano (Charmed) has a tattoo of a chain with a cross, fairies, the Sacred Heart and angels in her designs.

• Angelina Jolie Famous for her roles as Lara Croft in The Tomb Raider, Angelina has several tattoos, her most recent design being an authentic Thai tattoo of a tiger on her lower back.

• Ben Afflek also bears a few tattoos of his own, including the incredibly popular barbed wire armband.

• Nicholas Cage (Face Off, National Treasure) has an incredibly unique tattoo design of a monitor lizard wearing a top hat on his upper back.

• Robert Deniro Despite the number of tattoos he was shown with in the thriller Cape Fear, Mr. Deniro only has one real tattoo, a panther design.

• Jeff Corwin The Animal Planet hit, bears a snake tattoo design on his upper left shoulder.

• The nine actors who made up the “Fellowship” in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (except possibly Rhy-Davies who played Gimli, and is rumored to have sent a stunt double) all got an Elvish tattoo meaning “The Nine” on their ankles.

However, in this case, there is one top movie star that doesn’t belong in the ranks of the tattooed…Vin Diesel. Despite being bedecked in XXX and other films, in truth Vin is un-inked.

Pop, Rock and Other Music Stars

Musicians have been sporting tattoos and body art for ages! Before most people had overcome their fear of the taboo, rock stars, heavy metal musicians and punk bands were braving it out. Now, musicians in nearly every genre sport ink of some sort or another.

• Jon Bon Jovi (80’s rock idol) is tattooed with the Superman insignia, a dragon tattoo and a longhorn skull.

• Jonathan Davis of KORN (and the other members too) bears many tattoos. His ink includes the letters HIV, the KORN logo, and a tattoo of a bishop ripping away his skin to reveal Jesus underneath.

• Dave Grohl Who has had the pleasure of playing with bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Nine Inch Nails, has a chain tattoo design on his upper right arm and the letters FF on his back.

• Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit has several different tattoo images including an angel, a flower, a spiral design and a ring.

• Bill Idol Among other ink, has a tattoo design of a Russian comic book character.

• Eminem, a.k.a. Slim Shady, also wears quite a few tats. He has a dog tag tattoo design, a mushroom, and his children’s names tattooed on him, just to name a few.

• Lenny Kravitz boasts at least two tattoos, one of a dragon and another of a cross.

• Henry Rollins bears the image of the words “Search & Destroy” emblazoned across his back above a tribal sun, among other body art.

• Aaliyah This late actress and singer was decorated with a dove on her lower back, an initial & star on her hand, and a music symbol tattoo on her ankle.

• Beyonce has a praying angle adorning her upper left thigh.

• Avril Lavigne bears a small star on the inside of her wrist (the left one). The other tattoo that you may believe she has is, in fact, a fake and was a temporary tattoo placed (on the top of her butt) for a music award ceremony performance.

• And, drum roll please…Brittany Spears. Perhaps not as fortunate as her other tattooed pop-stars, Brittany recently suffered the misfortune of not only one tattoo mistake, but actually two. Learn from her example to be very careful when choosing tattoos in a language you can neither read nor write.

 These are hardly all of the tattooed musicians – the list goes on and on, to include N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rancid, P.O.D., and even the Dixie Chicks. These country star divas all have matching tiny chick footprints on one foot.

Sports Icons and Supermodels

Perhaps not discussed as much (but certainly still drooled at) are the sports stars and supermodels. Still very much tattooed celebrities in the lime-light, stars in these industries are often able to enjoy a little bit more privacy than those who regularly appear on the silver screen, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t influenced popular tattoo designs.

 Some well known sports celebrities with tattoos include:

• Dennis Rodman. This rowdy, rambunctious, attention loving basketball player was covered with tattoos and body jewelry. Some of the pictures in his body art gallery included a Harley Davidson tattoo, a picture of his daughter, a shark, and a cross – among other things.

• British soccer star David Beckham proudly wears at least nine different tattoo designs!

• Laila Ali Boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali, has tattoos that include her name and a teddy bear design.

• Stone Cold Steve Austin This wrestler has a tattoo of the state of Texas and a longhorn on his left calf, as well as a crystal ball on his left ankle.

• Kobe Bryant. This famous basketball star has many tattoos, one of which is a large tribute to his wife that he wears on his upper right arm.

• Tennis star Anna Kournikova has a large star tattoo design on her lower back.

But, by far, the mostly highly inked group of athletes (if you’d go as far as to call them that) would be the various branches of the wrestling world, where a great many of the characters, man or woman, good or bad, are heavily inked.

 There are also quite a few models and supermodels which bear body art. Rosie Ciavolino has a small tattoo just below her bikini line. Ehrinn Cummings has a frog on her check along with 2 elephants on her lower back. Nicky Hilton has a heart with wings on the inside of her right wrist and the word “Hilton” written in gothic font in the small of her back. She also has a small cross on the back of her neck. Her sister, Paris Hilton, used to have Nick Carter’s name inked on the right side of her backside, but has since hat it removed with laser surgery. And, 90’s Calvin Klein spokes-model Kate Moss has a tiny heart on the back of her left and a small crown on her left shoulder. 

Royalty and Heads of State

Despite the past’s unkind view of tattooing and body modification, some of the names that appear on the following list may be a little surprising, especially when you consider how far back the history goes.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt proudly bore a tattoo image of his family crest.

• Thomas Alva Edison, genius inventor, was tattooed with five dots on his left forearm that were arranged in the fashion of a “5” dice.

• King Alexander of Yugoslavia was inked with a large eagle tattoo design on his chest.

• King Alfonso of Spain was also tattooed.

• King Edward VII of England bore a tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross.

• King Frederik IX of Denmark was tattooed with a dragon and his family crest.

• King George II of Greece bore tattoo designs.

• King George V was decorated with a dragon design.

• King Harold II of England was the first documented royal to wear a tattoo. He lived from 1022 to 1066.

• King Henry IV was also among the ranks of royalty boasting body art.

 Other famous royalty bearing tattoos include Prince Charles, Prince Rudolph, Prince Frederik, Prince Waldermar, and Richard the Lion Hearted, King of England (1189-99 A.D.) who was also branded with the Jerusalem Cross.

 You’ll find them almost anywhere, on almost anyone now-a-days. In Hollywood and New York, but also St. Joseph, Missouri and Lexington, Kentucky. It’s a tradition sponsored and carried on by many of our nation and world. Tattoos show up in churches on ministers and hidden behind the suits of Wall Street professionals.

 Thanks in part to celebrities who’s tattoos are seen by the world, there are no longer any social boundaries, or status quos to stop us. We have taken tattoo into another realm, one shared by all of humanity, rich and poor, ordinary and famous.

A Celtic cross differs from a traditional cross in that it has a ring around the intersection. It is a major symbol of Celtic paganism, Christianity and art. (Celtic usually refers to the peoples and the descendants of groups such as the Irish, Scottish, or Welch.) Although you may see it shown otherwise, the Celtic cross is distinguishable by the fact that thearms of the cross are enclosed by the circle. In the 7th century, Irish Monks erected free standing Celtic crosses with ornate designs and runes over regions of Ireland and Great Britain. These crosses are called "high crosses". Today, Celtic crosses are popular in jewelry, t-shirts and, of course, tattoos. 

The complexity of the design of the Celtic cross is thought to parallel the complexity of nature. The cross represents the four directionals (North, South, East, and West) or the fourelements (Air, Earth, Water, and Fire). The circle represents eternity and endlessness of God's love. The intersection of the cross implies the meeting of Heaven and Earth. The place where the cross intersects within the circle is thought to suggest a place where the general rules of time and space do not apply. It invites communication between this world and the next. 

Although the Celtic cross is a symbol of both paganism and Christianity, it has also been adopted by some neo Nazi groups as their logo because of its ancient associations withthe Aryan peoples. However those designs are usually simplified geometric representations of the Celtic cross.

Celtic cross tattoos are often worn because of the wearer's ethic background such as those with Irish, Welsh or Scottish backgrounds. They can also denote the wearer's religiousbeliefs as well. You may also find Celtic crosses (or simplified versions of them) tattooed on the skin of skinhead, neo-Nazis or white supremacists.

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Celtic knot tattoos are extremely popular for many reasons. The knot designs, which have no beginning and no end, date back to artwork, jewelry and armor that the Celts (a group of Europeans that ultimately became the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh) used to symbolize a variety of things and create an extremely unique and beautiful art design. Today, Celtic knot tattoos, just like the Celtic knots themselves, can symbolize many different things to many different people. One of the reasons that Celtic knot tattoo designs are so popular is that they are extremely customizable. Just about any tattoo design can be turned into a Celtic knot tattoo design, thereby keeping the personal symbolism of the tattoo design while also incorporating some of the more traditional symbolic elements of Celtic tattoo designs. 

One of the most common reasons that people get Celtic knot tattoos is to celebrate their heritage. There are certain flower tattoos and plant tattoos that indicate various lineages in Celtic knot tattoo design. For example, a daffodil tattoo or a leek tattoo that incorporates a Celtic knot tattoo design indicates Welsh heritage. Also commonly used to indicate Welsh heritage is a Celtic knot tattoo design armband overlaid with the profile of a red dragon. This tattoo design is particularly striking and very striking on the bicep or calf. If you are Irish, then a shamrock tattoo that has been altered to also be a Celtic knot tattoo is a great option to celebrate your Irish heritage. Many historians believe that the Irish ultimately created the commonly known Celtic knot work that most people use in Celtic knot tattoos today, so this may be the most authentic way to express your heritage of all. Finally, Scottish heritage can be indicated by a thistle tattoo. Usually, thistle tattoos that incorporate Celtic knot tattoos do not actually make the thistle tattoo design out of a Celtic knot, as you might do with the shamrock tattoo, but instead create a Celtic knot tattoo design in another shape, such as an armband tattoo, a circle tattoo or a cross tattoo, then interweave the botanical elements in this case, the thistle tattoos among the Celtic knot tattoo.

Even if you are not of Celtic descent, you can enjoy your own personal interpretation of a Celtic knot tattoo. Celtic knots are highly symbolic of a variety of common values that inspire people to get tattoos, such as love, spirituality, strength and brotherhood. Unlike many culturally inspired tattoos, there is no Celtic knot tattoo for a given trait. For example, you cannot get the Celtic knot tattoo that means strength the same way that you can get a Chinese symbol tattoo that means strength. Celtic knot tattoos are far more individualize than this, which makes them ideal for a custom tattoo story. However, any Celtic knot is symbolic of eternal love, because the knots have no beginning and no end, strength and brotherhood, because when woven together, the individual strands have great strength and resilience, and life and nature, because as the Celtic knot increases in size and complexity, it becomes clear that all of the strands are interwoven in a beautiful and predetermined pattern that makes a wonderful whole. By incorporating Celtic knot tattoos into your tattoo design, you can incorporate your personal take on Celtic knot symbolism while keeping your tattoo entirely unique and personal to you. 

While Celtic knot tattoos are largely symbolic on a deeply personal level, there are some Celtic knot tattoo designs that are well known in popular culture and that do have some fairly traditional symbolic indications. One of these designs is the triquetra tattoo, or the trinity knot tattoo. This knot, which, like all Celtic knot tattoos, has no beginning and no end, is structured to have three distinct parts that all stem from a central point. This Celtic knot tattoo is used by Christians to indicate the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. However, it has existed since the time before Christianity, and was used by the ancients to indicate harmony between mind, body and spirit. Another popular Celtic knot tattoo is the eternity knot tattoo or the lovers knot tattoo. This tattoo design of two constant, interlocking loops that cannot be separated or even shown to have separate starting points symbolizes, appropriately, the joining of two lives. As a result, the eternity knot is often used in Celtic wedding rings, and is a perfect complement to any romantic or love inspired tattoo design. People often get eternity knot tattoos with rose tattoos interwoven in the design to symbolize their love for a significant other.

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Celtic knots are a type of knot that is usually endless or the representation of those knots for decorative purposes. Knot patterns are common in many of the world's societies for decoration or to tell a story. They began to show up in Celtic art prior to Christian influence but were later integrated in Christian religious art and architecture. 

Celtic tattoos are characterized by interwoven lines representing knots, mazes, spirals and other figures. The distinguishing feature of Celtic knots is that they never end or begin; representing the way the cycle of life is self repeating. Many of the Celtic knot designs tattoo artist used today are derived from the famous Book of Kells. The Book of Kells (also known as the Book of Columba) is a famous manuscript of calligraphy and illustrations, transcribed by Monks in 800 AD. It is widely regarded as Ireland's most prized national treasure. 

Celtic knots tattoos are popular with those whose ethnic backgrounds include Irish, Scottish or Welch ancestry. They are also found on people who want to show their religious beliefs, whether traditional Celtic pagan or Christian.

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