Ariana Grande has gotten 55 tattoos (and counting). Here's where they are and what they all mean.
Since Ariana Grande permanently marked her body for the first time back in 2012 — a tiny heart on her toe to commemorate the making of her debut album "Yours Truly" — the pop star's tattoo portfolio has expanded dramatically.
The 27-year-old now lays claim to 55 known tattoos — and she got at least 40 of those since the start of 2018. Five have been completely covered by additional ink, but the rest are still at least somewhat visible, making appearances in various Instagram updates and music videos.
Here's a complete visual guide to Grande's ink, plus the stories and possible inspirations behind each one.
Note: This article has been updated since its original publish date.
Grande's first tattoo is the outline of a heart on her toe.
Grande tattooed the outline of a heart on her toe in 2012 while recording a duet with 8ky, who got a matching tattoo.
The track was intended to be on Grande's debut album "Yours Truly," but was never released. The album did, however, include a song called "Tattooed Heart."
"This year has been 1 of the happiest and most enlightening years for me and I felt like I wanted to do something special to remind me of this time," Grande wrote in the caption of a video that documented her first experience getting inked.
"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."
Two years later, Grande got the phrase "mille tendresse" inked on the back of her neck.
"Mille tendresse" is French for "one thousand tendernesses." The phrase appears in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," starring Audrey Hepburn, which Grande has cited as her "all time favorite" movie.
"I always forget about my lil tat," Grande wrote on Instagram in 2014, showing off her second tattoo.
She has the word "bellissima" on her rib cage.
According to the fan-edited Ariana Grande Wiki, Grande's late grandfather would often call her "bellissima." It's the feminine word for "beautiful" in Italian.
One of her most famous tattoos is the crescent moon on her neck.
Grande got this tattoo before anyone knew about her third studio album, which was originally meant to be called "Moonlight." The album, now called "Dangerous Woman," still contains a track with that name.
One of Grande's best friends and backup dancers, Brian Nicholson, has a matching tattoo.
Grande has the word "honeymoon" on her right-hand middle finger.
Fans first noticed this tattoo when Grande was on "The Honeymoon Tour" in support of her sophomore studio album, "My Everything." Grande has a song called "Honeymoon Avenue" on her first album.
On the opposite side of the same finger, she inked the phrase "baby doll."
"Baby doll" is said to be a nickname given to Grande by her maternal grandma, whom she calls Nonna.
Her right-hand ring finger bears a Hebrew phrase.
In Kabbalah, the significance of the Hebrew name אלד is "guarding and protecting" from "the evil eye and from envy."
In 2014, Grande shared that she had become a practicing member of the Kabbalah sect of Judaism, largely because of how the Catholic Church treats homosexuality.
In the summer of 2015, Grande and her then-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez got "hi" inked on their toes — but it's since been covered.
Grande and her then-boyfriend Ricky Alvarez posted photos of their matching "hi" tattoos on Grande's Snapchat in June 2015.
Four years later, on July 9, 2019, Grande was featured on the cover of Vogue. Her cover shoot, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, included a photo with her left foot exposed and fans spotted a new tattoo on the same toe. The new ink looks significantly bigger, so although the design can't be distinguished, it's safe to assume that it covers the original "hi."
Grande has another tattooed heart on her right-hand ring finger.
The small piece is one of her most photographed tattoos.
In 2016, Grande inked a tribute to her best friend, Alexa Luria.
"I got two new tattoos today," Grande announced in a short video on her Snapchat. "I got this one for my friend, and for myself, because we have the same initial."
The friend in question is Alexa Luria, who has been close with the pop star since they were 10 years old. Luria appears multiple times throughout Grande's recent "Thank U, Next" video and stars in the music video for "7 Rings."
The same day, Grande got the Venus symbol on her left-hand middle finger.
The shape bears multiple meanings: The astronomical and astrological symbol for the planet Venus, the alchemical symbol of copper, and the gender symbol for female.
"A couple new finger tats today," Grande wrote on Instagram at the time, tagging the Los Angeles-based artist Doctor Woo. "So fine & perfectly petite, they won't even show up in this Polaroid."
Grande was accompanied to the Shamrock Social Club by her boyfriend at the time, Mac Miller, who was also inked by Woo. One month later, Miller would drop his album "The Divine Feminine," which includes a song he wrote about Grande ("Cinderella") and a song that features her vocals ("My Favorite Part").
She commemorated the citizens of Manchester with a bee tattoo.
One year after the bombing at one of her concerts in Manchester, which killed 22 fans and injured dozens more, Grande debuted a bee tattoo as a permanent tribute to the city.
The bee is a symbol of the city's hard-working legacy, stemming from the Industrial Revolution. People across the city went out in droves to get worker bee tattoos following the devastating terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.
Read more: Ariana Grande released a new music video — and fans think it includes a nod to the Manchester attack
Grande likely got the tattoo, along with many members of her crew, when they returned to Manchester for her One Love benefit concert in 2017.
She has the word "lumos" on her right hand.
"Lumos" is a spell used in the "Harry Potter" series to produce light.
Grande got this tattoo after she began dating her ex-fiancé, Pete Davidson. It is well-documented that the two bonded over their love for "Harry Potter" (and getting "Harry Potter"-related tattoos, apparently).
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Grande and Pete Davidson have matching cloud tattoos on their left hands.
In May 2018, before they had confirmed their relationship, fans noticed that Grande and Davidson had gotten identical cloud-shaped ink on their left-hand middle fingers.
Read more: A complete timeline of Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson's whirlwind engagement and shocking split
Grande's left knee bears a tribute to another of her best friends, Courtney Chipolone.
Given her affinity for over-the-knee boots, this tattoo rarely sees the light of day. But Grande revealed on June 7, 2018 that she had gotten "Court," short for Courtney, inked on her knee in honor of Courtney Chipolone.
Much like Luria, Chipolone is one of Grande's closest friends. She also stars in the "Thank U, Next" and "7 Rings" videos.
She has the acronym "H2GKMO" on her right hand.
"H2GKMO" stands for "honest to God knock me out," Grande's self-proclaimed favorite phrase. A number of her friends got the same tattoo, including her then-fiancé Davidson.
"it makes me so happy i can't wait to be 90 and remember how happy my life was & how few f---s my friends and i gave," she wrote on Twitter when she noticed that fans had criticized the decision.
There's an unidentified tattoo on Grande's left thigh.
Fans noticed some ink on Grande's thigh in a photo posted of her by Davidson, but it's impossible to make out. It has since appeared in various Instagram photos, but Grande has never clarified what the tattoo is.
She has the world "always" on her rib cage.
According to People, Grande has the word tattooed in Davidson's handwriting. Davidson has a matching tattoo on his upper back.
The word has since been partially obscured by leaves.
Grande inked a large plant on her midriff at 3 a.m. on March 17, 2019, with one leaf surrounding the word "always."
"not a cover up just evolvin," Grande wrote when she revealed the tattoo on Instagram.
Grande's old area code, 561, can be found on her left-hand thumb.
561 is the area code for Boca Raton, Florida, where Grande was born and raised until she was cast in a Broadway show at the age of 14.
She covered her "reborn" tattoo with a plant.
Grande originally revealed her "reborn" tattoo, which matched Davidson's, on June 26, 2018. The ink was most likely a reference to the song by Kid Cudi and Kanye West.
In October, after the couple called off their engagement, fans noticed that she had covered the word with some kind of plant. Many believe it to be an olive branch.
She also covered her "Pete" tattoo with a black heart.
When releasing teasers for her "Thank U, Next" video, Grande revealed that the tattoo reading "Pete" on her left-hand ring finger had been concealed with a black heart, possibly with an arrow going through it.
Previously, the "God Is a Woman" singer temporarily concealed the "Pete" tattoo with a Band-Aid during her first post-breakup performance.
Her tribute to Davidson's father is now a tribute to Miller's dog Myron, who she took in after he died.
In behind-the-scenes footage that Grande shared following the release of her "Thank U, Next" music video, the singer can be seen touching her left foot while practicing the bend and snap move from "Legally Blonde."
The 8418 badge number she got inked in honor of Davidson's late father, a firefighter who died on 9/11, had clearly been replaced with the name "Myron." Myron is the name of Miller's dog, who he adopted in 2017, while he and Grande were dating.
"I love my tattoos. I just went down to do the bend and snap and was like, 'Ugh! What a foot,'" she says in the video. "Look at my Myron — how cool, right?"
Grande also has a crescent moon and stars on her left foot.
Grande got more celestial ink sometime in October or early November 2018. The crescent moon and stars can be seen in Grande's music video for "Breathin," which premiered on November 7, 2018.
She has three tattoos behind her right ear: a lightning bolt, a black heart, and the acronym "R.E.M."
Fans first noticed the lightning bolt on June 22, 2018, on Grande's Instagram story and speculate that it's another reference to "Harry Potter."
The other two made their debut in Grande's music video for "Breathin."
"R.E.M." is the name of one of Grande's favorite songs on her fourth studio album, "Sweetener."
A tiny number can be seen on her right-hand index finger.
While it's difficult to make out, fans have deduced that Grande inked the number "9 3/4" on her right-hand index finger.
This is almost undoubtedly another reference to "Harry Potter," in which Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station is the gateway to the Hogwarts Express.
Grande's biggest tattoo yet is a portrait of the "Spirited Away" character Chihiro.
Prior to revealing her anime-inspired tattoo, Grande shared a lengthy description of the "Spirited Away" protagonist Chihiro: A 10-year-old girl who travels to the "Spirit World" and "matures from an easily-scared girl with a child-like personality to match her age to a hard-working, responsible, and brave young girl who has learned to put her fears aside for those she cares for."
The portrait of Chihiro was inked by New York City-based tattoo artist Mira Mariah.
Grande's left hand prominently features another crescent moon, the sun, and stars.
For this piece, Mariah traveled to Grande's New York City apartment, where she also gave Grande's 93-year-old grandma her first tattoo: The nickname for Grande's late grandfather, "Ciccio," on the inside of her ring finger.
Just above her left elbow, Grande inked the words "let's sing" in Japanese.
Grande posted two separate (although equally grainy) looks at this tattoo on December 31, 2018. Fans quickly deduced that "うたいましょう" translates to "let's sing" in Japanese, which Grande later confirmed on Twitter.
Grande has often expressed a love for Japan and Japanese culture. She began learning the language in 2015 and has demonstrated her progress on numerous occasions. Grande has even given online shout-outs to her tutor Ayumi, who works at Fuji, a Japanese language school in little Tokyo, Los Angeles.
Grande's favorite Pokémon, Eevee, was her first tattoo of 2019.
Grande took to her Instagram once again to show off a portrait of the Pokémon Eevee on her left arm.
Read more: Ariana Grande has a well-documented love of Eevee — and her fans even think they look alike
"I've wanted this for so long," Grande wrote over a photo of the new ink. She also thanked the man responsible, Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Kane Navasard.
She got an additional tattoo to alter the Japanese phrase on her palm.
Grande revealed the tattoo, "七 輪" on her left palm, in a now-deleted Instagram post. "七" means "seven," and "輪" means "hoop," "circle," or "rings" (as in, "7 Rings," her most recent single).
Fans quickly realized, however, that these two kanji characters, when put together, actually translate to mean "shichirin," which is a small charcoal grill.
In a now-deleted tweet, Grande admitted that she left out the characters in between that would have completed the proper translation because the tattoo was too painful.
After critics accused her of disrespecting the language "for the aesthetic," Grande returned to Kane Navasard's tattoo parlor to add an additional kanji (and another heart) to attempt to fix the phrase.
Despite getting help from her longtime Japanese tutor, it's still not technically correct.
She flaunted a new plant tattoo that wraps around her right index finger.
It looks like the plant stretches far enough that it obscures her "9 3/4" tattoo.
"my hands make me so happy," Grande wrote when she revealed her newest tattoo by Mariah, aka @girlknewyork on Instagram.
Fans also noticed a matching plant on her left pinky finger, alongside an abstract piece on her left ring finger.
The large black rectangle on her left ring finger, embellished with abstract details, overlaps the black heart that Grande previously got to cover her "pete" tattoo.
Grande's meet and greet photos also showed an eye on her left pointer finger and V-shaped designs.
The abstract designs, possibly inked by Mariah, join the cloud shape and feminine symbol that Grande already had on her left-hand fingers.
Grande has a quote from "The Truman Show" on her upper back.
When Grande's best friend revealed she got a quote from "The Truman Show" on her upper back, Grande re-posted the image and said she got the same thing — "but upside down."
The quote, inked by Grande's go-to New York-based artist, is arguably the titular character's most famous line: "In case I don't see ya: Good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"
Grande is a noted fan of Jim Carrey, who plays Truman in the 1998 film.
She got an angel wing on the inside of her left ear sometime in August.
The update account @arianasnewsig noticed the subtle ink in meet and greet photos from August 26.
She got her dog's name, Toulouse, tattooed on her left hand.
"Newest addition to my glove," Grande wrote on her Instagram story, tagging Mariah.
She also got more leaves and a Saturn tattoo for her left-hand "glove."
The two additional designs joined the existing sun, moon, and stars tattoo on her left hand that Mariah inked almost a year prior.
Nearing the end of her Sweetener World Tour, Grande got "SWT" inked on her finger.
Grande's close friend and frequent collaborator, Tommy Brown, posted a photo of four fresh finger tattoos and tagged Grande's hand (easily identified by the existing ink).
"Family ties," he captioned the image, adding a black heart.
The acronym stands for Sweetener World Tour, Grande's most successful string of concerts to date, which wrapped up on December 22, 2019 in Inglewood, California. Grande's live album, "k bye for now," was recorded during the tour.
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She debuted the outline of a butterfly tattoo on her left arm at the 2020 Grammys.
When Grande walked the red carpet at the 2020 Grammy Awards, fans quickly noticed a new butterfly tattoo in thin, black ink on her left arm.
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She later showed off an additional butterfly tattoo on the same arm.
Grande showed off a brand new, more detailed butterfly tattoo — this one placed above the first on her right arm — in a Instagram story that she posted and quickly deleted on March 14, 2020.
"I got a tattoo," she sings in the video.
It looks like her first butterfly tattoo has since been filled in as well; they're both very visible in an Instagram photo that Grande posted in May.
She has the word "baby" on the back of her left arm.
Grande's "baby" tattoo seemed to make its debut in May 2020, when Grande posted a set of self-portraits on Instagram. Many fans immediately noticed the delicate ink, though some believe she'd gotten it many months prior.
Grande has a floral design that looks like a lotus on the palm of her left hand.
The previously unseen tattoo was revealed when Grande flashed a peace sign at paparazzi in Los Angeles. It's located underneath the kanji characters that are meant to spell "7 rings" on her left palm.
Some fans believe she got the floral ink to honor Miller, who had a detailed tattoo of a lotus flower on his neck.
It looks like she has the word "Cinderella" on her left index finger.
In a photo Grande posted on her Instagram story, a faint word can be seen on the side of Grande's left index finger. Although it's difficult to make out, fans believe the tattoo spells "Cinderella" in cursive.
If true, the tattoo is almost certainly a tribute to Miller. The late rapper had a sexy song called "Cinderella" on his 2016 album, which was released when the two musicians were still a couple. Grande has confirmed that Miller wrote the song about her.
"You in my dreams, that's why I sleep all the time / Just to hear you say I love you, just to touch you, just to leave you behind," Miller raps. "I need it every day, I yell your name, Cinderella / Never gonna find nobody better, all my life."
She has something written on her right-hand ring finger.
Recent photos reveal some newer ink on the same finger as Grande's famous heart tattoo. It's so far been impossible to make out, but it looks like a small word in uppercase lettering.
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