After spending the early days of her career performing in low-key musicals and acting in Nickelodeon TV shows, Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, Ariana Grande, has since become one of the biggest names in the music industry. Yet, it’s not only her music that has caught the attention of her fans, with many curious about the artist’s personal life.
Ariana Grande has over 50 tattoos and she has covered at least 4 of them. Having got her first tattoo – a small heart on her toe – in 2012, the celeb is thought to have got around 40 tattoos since 2018.
When it comes to Grande’s tattoos, the story behind the alterations and coverings are often just as interesting as the meaning behind the ones that have been left untouched.
The Mistakes
With the big-time star getting as many tattoos as she has over the years, it’s no surprise that the artist has managed to make a few mistakes along the way.
But by all means, this doesn’t mean that the mistakes aren’t worth detailing.
In one of Grande’s biggest tattoo mishaps, the Florida-born artist got a kanji tattoo of what she believed to read “7 Rings”, but what actually translated to something more like “small charcoal grill”.
With a tattoo eternally commemorating a small Japanese style BBQ, not to her liking, Grande was quick to amend her mistake, altering the tattoo sometime later.
Despite rectifying her mistake in an orderly fashion, Grande was still the butt of several jokes on social media, with one user saying: “I see it, I want it, I grill it, I eat it”.
Although lost in translation on this occasion, it wasn’t the first time Grande had been forced to cover or amend one of her many tattoos.
In fact, after splitting up with her former fiancee, Pete Davidson, Grande was forced to cover or amend more than one of the tattoos that the couple got in honor of one another.
First of all, it was revealed that Grande had covered up the “8418” tattoo on her foot, which the artist had got in honor of her former partner’s firefighter father, Scott Davidson, who tragically lost his life during the 9/11 attacks. 8418 was his badge number.
The ‘Thank U, Next’ singer was also forced to replace the “Pete” tattoo on her ring finger with a black heart. Who could possibly decipher the meaning behind that one?
In fact, Grande actually replaced one of her Davidson-era tatts with an image of the dog Myron that she shared with her late boyfriend, Mac Miller. Grande adopted the dog after Mac Miller passed away.
Following her breakup with Ricky Alvarez, Grande also covered the matching “Hi” tattoo on her toe.
Even though Grande hasn’t had the best luck with her ink, she has also got a ton of other tattoos, some of which are rarely spotted by the media or members of the public, and the majority of them have an interesting meaning behind them.
The Standout Tatts
Grande got her first tattoo, the heart on her toe, to mark the release of her debut album ‘Yours Truly’. Reflecting on the decision to mark the occasion with a tattoo, Grande once stated:
“Writing my 1st album, working with my castmates & best friends on victorious, being young, having fun and being surrounded by love.. so..I wanted to do something permanent to remind me to always be grateful and not take anything for granted so.. I got a little tattoo”.
But, when it comes to style, Grande isn’t solely obsessed with icons, images, and Japanese phrases, she’s also a big admirer of tattoos in other languages.
In fact, a tattoo on her back reads “Mille tendresse” which is French for “one thousand tendernesses” (a nod to ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’), and on her rib cage, there’s a “bellissima” tattoo, which is the feminine word for “beautiful in Italian.
The word “bellissima” is allegedly what the artist’s late grandfather used to call her. Grande herself identifies as half Italian.
Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there, Grande also has a crescent moon tattooed on her neck, the words “honeymoon” and “baby doll” on the reverse sides of her middle finger, another tattoo on another finger, and the letter “A” which was a tribute to a friend of hers.
And, all of those are just the ones which are most widely known to the world, there are many many more. For Ariana Grande, the ink is very much yet to dry.