Justin Bieber, a highly decorated musician, has us spilling a lot of ink in the pages of GQ. He’s revealing many of his secrets, even his most obvious ones—like the big tattoos that are right there on his body. In spirit of full disclosure, he has provided us with a full key to his myriad of tats. In his own assessment of this body-work: “It seems like I have a lot of stuff.”
In terms of the visual information on Bieber’s bod, the avian theme is the most prevalent. His first tattoo was a tiny crotch-adjacent bird. He says it is from a children’s book he read with his family. It is a book about “a seagull who wanted to be more than just a seagull.” On his arm, he says, is “an owl, it signifies wisdom.” Bieber’s most recent tattoo is two wings at the base of his neck. They are position in such a way that if his head were to flee its body, it could transported by these wings. Bieber referred to this process of acquiring these inky appendages as “mad uncomfortable.”
From here, letter-based symbols are the most prominent. He has emblazed his chest with an outdated, and therefore serious, numerical system. They’re called Roman numerals. They stand for his mother’s birthday. As for the “LL” on his inner upper arm, he says, “This one is really cool. It stands from when my head’s low to lift it up. Just to never keep your head low and just to always look for the better days.” On his arm, there is an “X.” But it’s not just any X; he says, it’s for the “unknown.”
Speaking of exes, “This is my ex-girlfriend, I kinda tried to cover her face up with some shading, but people still know.” And now we all know what all his tattoos mean. It’s his final word—as final as the decision to get a tattoo.
