With the skin-baring season in full effect, the ladies are stripping down and showing off their body art, some of which may need to be covered up over others.
While Rihanna is known for her eye-catching tatts in peculiar places, Beyoncé has kept it low-key enough that she could mask hers by simply putting a ring on it. Regardless, tattoos are an intimate reflection of the person rocking them.
So even if needling someone’s name in your skin (so they know it’s real) may be a tactic preferred by the ink-covered Rozay, Vixen‘s ditching the cliché calligraphy and providing four fool-proof tatt tips that keep your exterior from looking like an art museum.
1. Do ink a small semblance of the love of your life in a significant place.
Beyoncé has never been a gal for overtly public displays of affection, unless it’s through her music. With the release of her 2011 album 4, the “Love On Top” singer revealed the significance of the number in her life (her birthday, Jay-Z’s birthday, wedding date and anniversary) and etched the roman numeral on her ring finger. Even if the former Single Lady sheds the rock, her love to Hov still shows.
2. Don’t use the front of your ankles or knuckles as a canvas.
Rihanna debuted a falcon piece on her lower left leg and tweeted the bird’s symbolic meaning that prompted her permanent decision: “Falcon: a light that always shines in the darkness! Never close their eyes during sleep.”
While the meaning is there, the placement is somewhat awkward. And let’s not remember the horrific “Thug Life” knuckle tatts that Rih pumped back in the day that seemed to have disappeared…
3. Do post quote tattoos in readable place.
A picture’s worth a thousand words, but even a handful of inked characters could represent a mantra or motto for many who decide to stitch it into their skin. Megan Fox is a quote ink enthusiast, using Shakespeare and well-known quotes to speak for itself. However, the Transformers actress did commit a tattoo no-no by forging the face of Marilyn Monroe into her forearm, which she later decided to laser off.
4. Don’t submit to the tramp stamp.
Mariah Carey’s whirlwind romance with hubby Nick Cannon began so quickly that the singing icon opted to ink her favorite emblem of a butterfly with her hub’s name on it. In turn, the former Wild N’ Out host imprinted her name in cursive across his upper back. Even as romantic as the gesture may seem for the first-time parents, the tramp stamp is a throwback trend that should never be brought back.