Tattoos are a huge part of many a celebrity’s image so we were struck with a huge list of artwork that was done on our favourite stars this year. Some went for beautifully intricate designs, others for a meaningful nod to a friend or event, and others just did it because they could.
Cara Delevingne got inked many times this year
Here are our favourite tattoos from 2016:
1. Cara Delevingne
The ‘Suicide Squad’ star added to her ever-growing ink collection with a gorgeous elephant on the inside of her forearm from Doctor Woo at The Hideaway tattoo studio in Los Angeles, but that’s not where her tattoo adventures ended this year. She and co-star Margot Robbie had a lot of fun tattooing smiley faces on each others toes, indulging in the latter’s hobby of amateur skin art.
More: Margot Robbie on her love of tattooing
2. Drake and Rihanna
When Rihanna decided to get a camouflage shark on her ankle to represent a stuffed toy that Drake once bought her, he went out and had the same thing tattooed on his forearm. Their courtship was brief, but it was New York artist Bang Bang who did the deed that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.
3. Justin Bieber
Son of god ??
A photo posted by Justin Bieber (@justnbieber) on Dec 20, 2016 at 11:08pm PST
The ‘Sorry’ singer added to his vast collection of body art with the words ‘Son Of God’ scrawled across his chest. He’s had a tough last few years, struggling with the pitfalls of having thousands of fans and failing to keep his legal matters out of the headlines, but here’s a reminder that he is – like everyone – one of God’s children. Unless of course he means he’s the Second Coming in which case it’s a rather narcissistic move on his part.
4. Harry Styles
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The One Direction boys played a game of Tattoo Roulette with James Corden on ‘The Late Late Show’ earlier this year. The game involved each member of the band and James himself selecting a box at random, four of which had the word ‘Safe’ written inside and one which had ‘Tattoo’. If one of the 1D boys picked the ‘Tattoo’ box, they had to get ‘Late Late Show’ inked on their skin there and then, and if it was James he had to have a ‘One Direction’ tattoo. Naturally, Harry Styles lost. Or won, depending on how you look at it.
5. David Beckham
This former soccer star has definitely had more than one new tat this year and it’s extremely difficult to tell by now which are his newest. However, wife Victoria Beckham shared an image of a horse’s head on the side of his neck earlier this year which was apparently done by Mark Mahoney at the Shamrock Social Club in Los Angeles.
6. Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato posted a gif of herself showing off her pinky tattoo on Instagram (a simple smiley face) with the caption: ‘Cause life’s too short not to tattoo your pinky’. She’s had a number of other ink done too, including a fairly large rose design on her left wrist.
7. Miley Cyrus
Miley is another Doctor Woo lover who got the LA artist to etch a small jar of Vegemite on the back of her upper arm. It’s thought to be a tribute to her boyfriend Liam Hemsworth, who she reconciled with earlier this year, as the famous food spread is popularly made in Australia.
8. Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande has showed off lots of finger tattoos this year such as a Venus symbol on her middle finger and an ‘A’ on her thumb, but perhaps her most interesting is ‘BABYDOLL’ on the inside of another middle finger, representing the nickname her grandmother uses for her.
9. Kylie Jenner
This reality star made tribute to her mental health by having ‘sanity’ written in phonetics tattooed in red on her butt. It was done by Rafael Valdez, who actually did her first tat (a little red heart) and also did the majority of her boyfriend Tyga’s art.
10. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner
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Sophie Turner’s matching tattoo with Maisie Williams is perfect. ?? #Emmys pic.twitter.com/V31t2On7mv
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 18, 2016
These ‘Game of Thrones’ sweethearts proved that best friends are forever by getting matching tattoos of the date ‘07.08.09’ in very pale – almost invisible – pink. It’s the date they both found out they had landed parts in the Primetime Emmy Award-winning HBO fantasy series. Cute!