It all started with several amateurish videos on YouTube. The 12-year-old Justin Bieber taught himself to play various musical instruments. His innate vocal talent completed the picture. It wasn’t long before the record labels in the US were eager to team up with him. Since then, Justin Bieber has not been out of the charts. Wherever he goes, he is followed by paparazzi and his ‘Beliebers’. Up to now his career has known only heights and the ‘Bieber fever’ doesn’t seem to be over yet. Even when he was convicted of assault and battery, and reckless driving, his fans remained loyal to him.

That little boy has since then transformed into a cool guy in his twenties. Tattoos are of course a part of that. Since his sixteenth up until now, he has had no less than 51 tattoos! We list the main ones at a glance here.

Family Tattoos

As a kind of rite of passage Justin had a seagull tattooed on his hip on his sixteenth birthday. It's the same tattoo as the one his father and several male relatives had done. The tattoo represents the seagull from the fable ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’. It is not really noticeable, but it marked the beginning of Justin’s tattoo journey.

He also had his second tattoo done in a family context. Justin and his dad had the same tattoo done on their rib cage at the same time: the Hebrew word for Jesus. Justin was raised religiously by his mother after his parents divorced. It is even said that Justin says some prayers before each performance.

Religion is clearly important to the pop star. He has also had an effigy of Jesus and a pair of hands in praying position tattooed on his left leg. Later he had a number of roses added to these tattoos, resulting in them now occupying a large part of his leg. On his right shoulder, we see a bible psalm: ‘Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.’

His mother also received a special tribute. He had her birth year tattooed in Roman numerals on his right collarbone.

Even Justin's grandfather is honoured. To commemorate him, Bieber had an Indian tattooed on his left shoulder blade as a reference to the hockey team, which he and his grandfather often went to watch.

Music Tattoos

Music is obviously Justin's greatest passion. This is also reflected in a number of tattoos. His first music tattoo was a reference to his then album. The star had ‘Believe’ tattooed on the inside of his left arm. A diamond on his right wrist turn refers to his collaboration with the rapper Chance for the song ‘Confident’. The same diamond can be found on the album cover.

He also had a treble clef tattooed behind his ear. This way he will, in his own words, always be reminded of his first love, music.

His brand new album ‘Purpose’ has also already been immortalised, this time on his stomach, just above his belly button.

Love

You don’t have to be a Belieber to know that Justin was together with another teen idol Selena Gomez for several years. He had an angel tattoo done that is the spitting image of Selena Gomez on his left wrist, which was published in Elle magazine. The couple is no longer together, but the tattoo is still there. Justin and Selena have also stated several times that they are still friends.

On his right arm, we still see a ‘love’-tattoo. This tattoo is also said to refer to his relationship with Selena.

King Justin

Justin has a number of tattoos referring to Mediaeval kings and knights. Nobody really knows where that fascination comes from, but it’s obviously his thing. He has had a crown and a knight with sword tattooed.

Temporary Justin Tattoos

True Beliebers can feel connected to their idol for a while with the Tattoo For A Week temporary tattoos. Check out the offer here.