Though not yet in Kat Von D territory, Rihanna has spent much of the past few years steadily turning her body into a singing and dancing canvas. She has, at this point, 12 tattoos by our count. And when she gets inked, she goes in for meaning, even if the message is occasionally obscure. Without an explanation, the layman wouldn't be able to figure out what her squiggly lines and a bunch of roman numerals might mean. And that's why we're here, to provide the service of decoding Rihanna's tats. Let's figure this girl out!
Roman numeral tattoo
We know that Rihanna's tattoo of "XI IV LXXXVI" means "11 4 86" because we paid attention in elementary school and we watch a lot of sequels. What we didn't know is that Rihanna uses the U.K.'s dating convention and it stands for April 11, 1986, the birthday of Melissa Forde, her assistant. Nor did we know that it's a secret lesbian confession, but that might be because that's not true.
"Never a failure, always a lesson"
This is Rihanna's motto, written in gray script, backwards, so she can look at it in the mirror. She got it at 2 a.m. at New York City's East Side Ink, from a guy known as "Bang Bang." The phrase is about learning from one's mistakes, which is what you should do after hanging out at 2 in the morning with a fully grown adult who calls himself "Bang Bang."
Music note and treble clef
This is, apparently, one of Rihanna's earliest tattoos, and the meaning should be pretty easy to grasp. Although there's always the possibility that it's another lesbian confession to her voice teacher, or something.
Stars
Rihanna has two different star tattoos, one in her ear--which must have been incredibly painful--and a number of them running down her back, which she shares with Chris Brown. Some think it's a "shooting star" tattoo that means "wishes coming true," which is actually kind of bummer given how that relash ended.
Arabic tattoo
This Arabic tattoo means, according to Rihanna, "freedom in God." We're not sure we get it. Doesn't this seem like a fundamental misreading of theology? Isn't God all about setting rules? All that "shalt not kill" stuff? Hmm.
Skull tattoo
On her left ankle, Rihanna's got a skull with a little bow on it, or the "feminine skull." (Ladies, even bald ones, like bows in their hair.) We know that she got it in Miami and it's "by a great artist," but little else is known.
"Rebel flower"
A few hours after Rihanna first appeared in public with this tattoo, people were calling her out for it being mistranslated. Those people said the words were out of order and therefore not proper French. But Rihanna claims that she knew this and, it's not supposed to be in proper French! Anyway, it translates to "rebel flower," but we have no idea what that means.
"Shhhh"
There's not much to this one. It's one of those quirky, clever things that quirky, clever people get tattooed onto their finger so they can look quirky and clever.
Gun
For someone from Barbados, not known for a heavy incidence of gun ownership or crime, Rihanna sure does like firearms. Her favorite artist, "Bang Bang" spent over a YEAR planning the minuscule gun tattoo on her ribcage, which he says represents power and protection.
Tribal symbol
Look, Rihanna is beautiful and a fantastic singer, but she doesn't have the most original tattoos. Her wrist tattoo makes that point. Tribal symbols are so very 1996 and so very frat boy. But that didn't stop Rihanna from getting a Maori symbol inked on her wrist while in New Zealand. "It represents strength and love," she said back in 2008. "I always wanted [one]…[But] it hurt like hell!" We can't help but think the pain was the tattoo gods telling her that she was making a bad decision.
Pisces
Those little lines behind her ear? It's the Pisces symbol. As a Pisces, Rihanna is supposed to be sensitive and compassionate and unconventional. She's also supposed to be asexual. But that's only if you believe in astrology, which no one here does, right?
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