Friendship Tattoos

As the world is tentatively coming back online, we emerge with – hopefully – a newfound or strengthened sense of what is truly important to us. No, not only the speedy holidays to Portugal or the pints down at the pub (although, of course, those are pretty spectacular too), but most of all, relationships. While we may have been, successfully or not, stuck with a partner (or kids for that matter) in much more confined spaces than we would have liked, most of us have seen a lot less of our friends. 

Friends as family

Friends are the family we choose. While romantic relationships tend to get all the glory – and all the added pressure to go along – friendships may be the backbone around which our lives are built. Even if they have been taking place a lot over FaceTime for the past sixteen months. The same way, matching tattoos for the sake of romantic love tend to get the most attention. 

However, it makes even more sense that one should celebrate the bond that true friendship brings by getting matching – or at least referential – tattoos with the closest people in one’s life. Increasingly popular in studios all over the world, commemorative friendship tattoos are the next big thing in smaller pieces of body art. (Of course, you could also get matching full-back dragons, but that might be a bit harder to agree upon.) 

While people have been getting matching tattoos for some time, as with most things these days, Instagram has made the trend much more visible. Celebrities have done their fair share of contributing to the craze. Let’s take a look at some ideas to celebrate your very own fellowship – whether that includes two people, a quartet, or perhaps the entire screen filled with little squares. 

Celebrity friendships sealed with ink

Models Cara Delevigne and Paris Jackson got red roses on their arms, upper right and lower left respectively, ahead of the 2021 Oscars. To be fair, there are romance rumours circulating about the pair, who could be seen leaving one of the event’s afterparties together in the early hours of the morning. But in either case, it is not a bad option to get the same thing in different places with the person who will always wait until you are ready to leave. 

Meanwhile, this is not the first matching tattoo for Delevigne who also has the word ‘solemate’ on the arch of her foot –  a word that is mirrored by her fellow model colleague Kaia Gerber. Delevigne’s toes also sport some simplistic tattoos made by her friend and actress Margot Robbie. And the vice versa is true as the two tattooed each other after finishing the filming of Suicide Squad. 

Nor is it the first coordinated ink for Paris Jackson. The daughter of the late King of Pop shares matching spoon tattoos with her godfather, Macaulay Culkin. The Home Alone actor has shared in interviews that it is a symbol of the habit he has passed on to his goddaughter of stealing spoons from restaurants, airplanes, cafés etc. 

There is a lot to get into about friendship tattoos, check back later this week for the next part in the series!