Many celebrities get ink as a form of body art, but is Katy Perry one of them?
Katy Perry does have tattoos. She has at least ten tattoos that are known to the public, and she has been collecting them throughout her career. Most of them are small and placed on her ankles, wrists, or fingers – but does she does have a couple on her arms as well. Some of these represent her albums, and some represent certain tours.
Read on to learn more about each of Katy’s tattoos!
Katy Perry Gets Tattoos to Pay Homage to Her Career
Katy Perry has quite a few tattoos, and almost half of them represent either one of her tours or one of her albums. The styles vary across her tattoos; all the ankle tattoos that she has are done in the same colorful, almost cartoonish style, but some of them are different altogether. Some tattoos are simply writing of some sort. Her famous eye tattoo is, for instance, by the LA-based artist Dr. Woo, whom she flew out from Sydney, Australia to tattoo herself and many members of her crew as well.
This tattoo, which Katy got in 2017, symbolizes the end of Witness: The Tour. It is her most unique tattoo to date, and it looks like an eye with a teardrop – or Saturn and a spaceship, both at the same time. She spoke about the tattoo on Instagram, saying, “The planet in the middle is Saturn as this journey has taught me many lessons with a few tears along the way, BUT I am happy to report a sense of real resilience as we wrap. I share this insignia with 45 other tour mates and moreover an incredible year of memories with over 100 beautiful & kind humans and a numerous amount of gracious attendees.”
Katy’s Other Career-Related Tattoos
Katy has four ankle tattoos in total. The first is the strawberry on her left ankle, which she got in 2009 to celebrate the success of her debut album, One of the Boys. Strawberry inspired symbolism appears often in her props and her costumes for shows. Similarly, she has a smiling peppermint tattoo on her right ankle to celebrate her next album, Teenage Dream. Some of her crew members reportedly got the same tattoo when she did.
For her Hello Kitty tour, she got a little Hello Kitty head tattooed on the side of her right middle finger. She got this on 30th October, which was the first day of that tour, and also Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary! Katy also has the Roman numeral XLIX, meaning 49, on another finger to represent her performance at the 49th Super Bowl halftime show. She actually got this tattoo just a few hours after the event ended!
Katy has another ankle tattoo; a prism with rainbow colors. This celebrates The Prismatic World Tour, which had lasted almost a year. She got this tattoo in 2015, and it was done by the celebrated artist Keith McCurdy or ‘Bang Bang.’ She still pays him to join her during tours – and to tattoo her and most of her crew – sometimes.
Katy’s More Spiritual Tattoos
The rest of Katy’s tattoos are of a more spiritual nature. She grew up in a religious home and used to exclusively perform gospel music at first. Her oldest tattoo is the word Jesus on her wrist. She got this in 2001 when she released her own gospel album. She has said that this tattoo reminds her of her roots and her beginnings.
Katy has the Sanskrit words, “Anuugacchati Pravaha” inked on the inside of her right arm. This means, “go with the flow”. She got this tattoo with her ex-husband Russell Brand in 2010. The couple also learned Transcendental Meditation together, an ancient practice that both Katy and Russel still advocate for today.
Katy has a tiny lotus tattoo on one of her wrists, but she has not spoken publicly about this tattoo the way she has about her other ones. Since she got this after her divorce with Russel Brand, most speculation suggests that it represents a new beginning of some sort for her. Another flower tattoo that she has is the cherry blossom on her right ankle. Her ex-boyfriend John Mayer has the same tattoo. Cherry blossoms generally symbolize beauty; and living in the present.