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Grimes/Tattoos

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Grimes has fifty tattoos, eleven of which are covered up/faded. Some of them have been done by herself or her friends, but most have been done by professional artists, most notably Delphine Noiztoy,[1] ZHENJA 777R, Jancob (Tweakt), and glyphomancer.

Grimes has said "I never decide until 10 minutes before I'm getting a tattoo what it's going to be."[2] and "What I normally do is I find a tattoo artist that I really love and let them do their best work on me."[3] about getting her tattoos.

She also loves tattoos very much and "I would be so sad without them - it seems so sad to have the stock starter pack human body."[4]

The most recent ones have been centered around her wish to "The long slow effort to have a full alien body - gna be totally covered in white ink/ ..post-human".[5]

Grimes has mentioned wanting to laser off her stick and poke tattoos, in order to make way for new full-body tattoos. Grimes had a lasering session once, but it "(..) really, really, really, really hurt".[6]

❝ U know what's good about tattoos, it's the only fashion trend left that still carries weight, intention, and not faking it. It's a fashion trend u have to bleed for that will make you less attractive to most people because u care about art more than approval.

People get peoples names, carve their loved ones into their literal flesh. It shows resolution, commitment. It's poetic

Btw I love fashion tho and there's a beauty to changing hats all the time too but I do like that tattos aren't for the faint of heart ❞ - Grimes on X[7]

❝ I won't keep beating the tattoo drum but I am literally covered in tattoos over most of my body. My shoulders chest and back r completely covered but it's all white ink. It looks like barely perceptible mystical dragon scarring. My legs r super heavy - each leg has a giant single piece.

U can definitely get even a lot of ink and work hard with the artists such that it suits you rly well and feels organic. Ppl are always so confused when they realize im heavily tattooed but it rly deeply feels almost like birth marks or smthn like it's strange ppl just seem to not percieve them. The one thing ive never done is my arms - because I think heavy on the arms is what gives the like.. Harley Davidson biker look and im specifically going for like - not "tattoo culture" - doing the arms is the one thing that seems to rly alter one's aesthetic. Even my hands r covered , both palms even ❞ - Grimes on X[8]


❝ Any way, it's too late to save me

But I ride for tattoos. It's the Boudica in me ❞ [9]

Grimes Wiki has listed and identified her tattoos to the best of abilities.

Photo Explanation
Crescent Tattoo: Grimes has the outline of a moon crescent on her left thumb.
Toe Tattoo: Grimes has the outline of a triangle or a bow on her right big toe, situated more on the fore end but not on the nail, facing away from her.
Dagger Tattoo: Grimes has a dagger tattoo on her inner left calf, but it is now partially covered by her brushwork leg tattoo, though some of it is still visible.
Left Arm Tattoos: Grimes has the outline of a small heart and a faded skull on her left arm.
Triforce Tattoo: Grimes has a Triforce tattoo on her left forearm, which matches to that on her brothers. She explained to Bullett Media in June 2012: "The Legend of Zelda was the first video game me and my brothers ever got, and so we all got matching Triforce tattoos."[10]
Head Tattoo: Grimes has three lines behind her ear on the right side of her head.
Self-done Hand Tattoos: Grimes has a Greek meander on her left index as well as the number 8 and an alien head on the back of her left hand. She also has a band around her left wrist and two band-like lines on her pinkie (see next). She explained to Prefixmag in February 2012: "I did them all myself, I have a Greek meander that is often mistaken for a square wave on my finger (very telling of the times), an alien head because I believe in aliens, an '8' because it's my lucky number and a wrist band my friend designed for me that I did in the woods in Minnesota."[11] Her album Visions (2012) features a song called "Eight" and has an artwork with a similar alien drawing. We have not been able to identify the symbol tattooed between the alien head and the 8, but it looks like a combination of a DNA strand and the greek letter Psi (Ψ). The squiggly lines in alternating directions on her knuckles which represent the four elements from the movie Fifth Element were later covered up by several Delphine Noiztoy tattoos in 2016 and 2018.


While her left hand is covered in numerous tattoos, her right hand only features two lines on her index finger: a simple one and another one with smaller lines coming out of it, looking a bit like a ruler.


When Grimes was asked if she has a tattoo she doesn't like anymore, she responded that it's the alien head tattoo:[12]

❝ I have one that’s like an alien in a hand. I got it when I was in the mood for X-Files imagery back in the day, and I loved aliens. It seems silly now, but at the time, it was a great idea. ❞

Triangle Tattoo : Grimes used to have a blue triangle on her right wrist as of May 2011 before getting it covered.[13]There has been no additional information about it, but it could have resembled a play button. There in a scar between the triangle and the crease of the wrist.
Cross Tattoo: Grimes used to have an ornate cross with an eye in the middle on her right wrist, tattooed in April 2012.[14] In her Teen Vogue cover story, she called it "a really bad tattoo that I got when I was younger" and it has since been covered up.[2] She said of the cross imagery: "I'm not religious, but I grew up religious, so it's a comforting image to me."[2]
Beautiful Tattoo: The back of her left hand features the word "Beautiful". In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: "feeling beautiful despite many imperfections haha, terrible and wonderful memories etched into my skin. Even the most screwed up ones were all done w or by my best friends and they all feel like home." In her Teen Vogue cover story, she revealed that it was done in New Zealand by a man called Victor J Webster, who offered to give her a free tattoo if he could come to her show.[2] Her March 2020 Rolling Stone cover story mentioned that it is a tribute to Christina Aguilera's song "Beautiful"[15] from Aguilera's fourth studio album Stripped (2002).
Chain Tattoo: Grimes started this homemade tattoo of chains around her left arm in February 2015.


In an Instagram caption she wrote:[16]

❝ Starting a new 1 💕💕 excited and a bit high on adrenaline, going for a game of thrones style tattoo of chains ❞

It remains unfinished since.

Brushwork Cross Tattoo: Grimes got this huge brushstroke tattoo on her right forearm in December 2015. Although most of her other tattoos have been done by herself or friends, this one was created by Delphine Noiztoy, an artist who specializes in realism blackwork.

In an instagram post, she explained: “Big streaks of paint so I always remember that I’m an artist, Delphine is a master of this style. I hope to add more specks of paint with her later, so that my hands always look as if I’ve just been painting and making a mess.” The tattoo is a redesign of her existing cross tattoo, which was smaller and more ornate.

Runes Tattoo: Grimes got the runes "ᚷᛈᚫ ᚷᛗᚫ" (representing the letters "gpa gma") tattooed on the right side of her ribcage by Delphine Noiztoy in November 2016.[17]
Middle Finger Tattoo: Grimes got a tattoo on her left hand's middle finger from Delphine Noiztoy in November 2016. She created a geometric blackwork design, covering her whole middle finger with concentric shield shapes[18] in reference of a ring from The Lord of the Rings.[19]
Left Leg Tattoo: Grimes got this huge brushstroke tattoo on the front of her left leg from London-based artist Delphine Noiztoy at LoveLetters tattoo parlor in Los Angeles in January 2017. The creative blackwork design stretches from just above her knee all the way onto the top of her foot. The brushstrokes spell out the letters “тихо” which means “quiet” in Russian,[20] which was also the name of her dog. It partially covers her dagger calf tattoo.


Grimes explained her experience in an Instagram post:[21]

❝ before the bandage but after the tat -- delphine p much did it freehand over her sketch. hana talked to her the whole time so i could focus on their voices and not succumb to the pain.. man tattoos are such a healing experience tho. always hates my legs cuz of stupid scars tats and brandings from my troubled years. now i'm just stooooooked not to have to wear tights all the time ❞

Palm Tattoos: Grimes got a series of symbols hand-poked on her left palm in March 2017 by artist Grace Neutral, who captioned them as "Spells for Elves" in an Instagram post.[22]

On her middle finger is the alchemy symbol for the planet Jupiter (♃), which is associated with thinking and learning. We have not been able to identify the other symbols, which may be custom designs. Magical sigils can be created by combining the letters into a unique design. The lines at the center of her palm bear some resemblance to the letter E in the old Irish Ogham alphabet, but it doesn’t have the same bend at the bottom.[23]

In 2025, Grimes said:[24]

❝ An (evidently) very powerful witch carved this spell into my hand years ago and it has unleashed literal years of chaos.

I will be casting spells with the other hand in coming weeks. How do I balance it intentionally? It was a spell for power. There has been no mitigating magic and I think it might be dark magic. ❞

Fae Tattoo: Grimes gave herself a stick-and-poke saying "ФАЙ" above her right knee in September 2017. As it is a DIY tattoo, it is upside-down and faces towards her. "Фай" is a transliteration into Russian of the word "fae", an old English word for fairy that Grimes has used (sometimes with her own spelling "faé") to refer to art that gives off fairy vibes. The actual Russian word for fairy is "фея" ("feya").[25] This results in the tattoo resembling the word “РАЙ” more, which means paradise. She curated a playlist called “the faé list” and has applied her own artistic backstory to the sound, writing in October 2017: “The fae are the children living at the end of the world, who make art that reflects what it’s like to live knowing the earth may not sustain humanity much longer. We live knowing that environmentally driven genocide is nigh, that the least equipped are to be struck down by the very earth itself. Repentance by the innocent for the sins of the rich. This does not mean that all fae art is directly about this, but that the influence of this reality is inescapable for the fae.”

[26]

Elven Tattoos: Grimes and her friend HANA got semi-matching Lord of the Rings tattoos in July 2018. Artist Delphine Noiztoy came over to HANA’s house to tattoo both of them with writing in J.R.R. Tolkien’s elvish language. This was HANA’s very first tattoo and she got the Gandalf quote “and all turns to silver glass” on her thigh, while Grimes got Tengwar script on her left pinky, ring, and index fingers reading “Contradiction“ () / “Be ready for wa[r]“ () / “No shields allowed” () respectively, which are not quotes from the book series.[27][28]


The script goes over her meander and two lines tattoo.

Butterfly Tattoo: Grimes got a red and to a lesser extent black what appears to be a fairy butterfly wing tattoo on her right lower forearm-upper wrist area from Los Angeles based tattoo artist Tweakt, on March 17th, 2021 - the date of her 33rd birthday.
Back Tattoo: Grimes got a full back tattoo in white ink from Tweakt in April 2021. In an Instagram post, she wrote:[29]

❝ Full back in white ink by @tweakt w sum help from the alien computer brain of @nusi_quero Don’t have a good pic cuz it hurts too much and I need to sleep haha, and it’ll be red for a few wks , but gna be beautiful alien scars Hope everyone’s having a good day 😴 ❞

On Nusi's Instagram story, he posted:[30]

❝ @tweakt Drew the base shapes on an iPad and then emailed me the image file. I turned it into 3D geometry, selected vertices on the shape, and guided and grew the embellishments along and around the shapes that he laid down first with a series of procedural operators (math rules) in a way that I felt spoke to his shapes, and @grimes I then sent it back to him as a png overlay and etc etc and they went in on it immediately full on I take 1 session! Ahh ❞

Left shoulder Tattoo: Grimes has another 'alien scar' tattoo on her left shoulder, which is possibly an extension of her back tattoo, however this one has not been shown or announced publicly, and the tattooist is not known. It is faded now.
Lower Chest tattoo: Grimes got a white ink chest tattoo, located between her breasts, that is "a pattern of pale lines that curve beneath her breasts and come to a point at her upper chest"[31] on January 24, 2022. A tattoo artist, whose Instagram tag goes by the name of @glyphomancer, is the artist of the tattoo. The tattoo partially strikes through her runes tattoo.
Upper Chest Tattoo: at some point Grimes got another white ink chest tattoo, likely done around the same time as her other. It has the Marain text tattoo tattooed over now.
Right Leg Tattoo: On May 31, 2023, Grimes tweeted pictures of her in a tattoo studio with a blue stencilled design on her leg, and that the final design would be done in red ink.[32] The tattoo was done by @caidasindesamparo on Instagram. It goes through her "Fae" tattoo.
Right Ear Tattoo: On June 2nd, 2023 Grimes tweeted a picture of her new right ear tattoo with the caption:[33] Closest I've come to letting anyone tattoo my face @zhenja_tttr (on insta)
Left Collarbone Tattoo: On June 10th, 2023, Grimes got an 'alien scars' white ink tattoo under her left collarbone by a tattoo artist whose Instagram profile is called @zhenja_tttr.[34]


The text is in the fictional language Marain created by Iain M Banks.[35] It translates to "tehknoh y ehks" or "techno y x", the nicknames of her three children.

Abdomen Tattoo: Grimes posted a TikTok video on July 28th, 2023 showcasing her new hand poked pink ink tattoo on the left (right when mirrored) side of her abdomen. The description credited the tattoo artist @glyphomancer on Instagram for the work. Only one half of it has been revealed to the public.[36][37]


Grimes believes this is the best tattoo she has ever seen.[38]

Palm Tattoo: Sometime in April of 2024 Grimes and Anyma (her current boyfriend and collaborator) got a matching tattoo on Grimes' right and Anyma's left palm. What the symbol represents is currently unknown.
Popliteal tattoos: Grimes got the words 'GINO' and 'NANO' tattooed on her left and right leg popliteal areas respectively, as "(..) a joke/ dare I got his name [Gino Nano] tattooed on me a year ago at a party on the day I met him and luckily he turned out to be a good person"[39]


Who tattooed those words is unknown.

Right shoulder Tattoo: On May 25, 2024, Grimes posted a selfie of herself, showing new white scars on her right shoulder and trapezius area.


She said:[40]

❝ [Besides] I have to finish all this white ink by @glamour_spells otherwise my look isn't complete for the new era ❞

Right Back Shoulder Tattoo: On March 9, 2025, glyphomancer posted images of another 'white scar' hand poked tattoo on the back of Grimes' right shoulder and trapezius, situated next to her right shoulder tattoo from a year ago.[41]


it goes over the periphery of her back tattoo from 2021.

The Travel Almanac (2022) 009

Almost all of Grimes' hand tattoos can be seen in this photo for The Travel Almanac.

References[]

  1. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1875928088821055787
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://www.teenvogue.com/story/grimes-interview-teen-vogue-april-2016
  3. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/grimes-aespa-k-pop-media-ai-music-1234853710/
  4. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1876308008759889986
  5. ↑
    Instagram Story (28 Jan 2022) 001
  6. ↑ https://youtu.be/beE6CEZ-dKk?si=PS4X5dPBua7lHtu1&t=530
  7. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1876306718973423716
  8. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1876304546416239095
  9. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1876305051565851078
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20121013095137/http://bullettmedia.com/article/4ad-summer-grimes-on-hacking-video-games-mariah-carey/
  11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190327184138/https://www.prefixmag.com/features/grimes-interview/61395/
  12. ↑ https://grimes.fandom.com/wiki/Rolling_Stone_Mexico/Interview
  13. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirkstauffer/5796952028/in/photostream/
  14. ↑ https://grimes-claireboucher.tumblr.com/post/21759814228/grimes-new-tattoo-shes-the-one-with-the-white
  15. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/grimes-rolling-stone-digital-cover-960843/
  16. ↑ https://grimes.fandom.com/wiki/Instagram/2015/Feb
  17. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BMULtDPAh9t/
  18. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BMUakhEgo5G/
  19. ↑ https://youtu.be/qQXdDvs0cVc?si=iiZKlCf-slHJxKL8&t=409
  20. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/тихо#Russian
  21. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BPJikA-gyvU/?hl=en
  22. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BSMP0-FhqDc/
  23. ↑ https://stealherstyle.net/tattoo/164947/#more-164947
  24. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1917096695013511269
  25. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/фея#Russian
  26. ↑ https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/37722/1/what-exactly-is-grimes-new-music-genre-fae
  27. ↑ https://stealherstyle.net/tattoo/164955/#more-164955
  28. ↑ https://www.tecendil.com/
  29. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CNjOvN0sfv4/
  30. ↑ https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-04-12-grimes-strips-down-to-show-off-her-massive-alien-scars-back-tattoo/
  31. ↑ https://pagesix.com/2022/01/31/grimes-wants-to-be-totally-covered-in-alien-tattoos/.
  32. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664074047716753411
  33. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1664466024505421825
  34. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1667567612895584256
  35. ↑ https://trevor-hopkins.com/banks/a-few-notes-on-marain.html
  36. ↑ https://www.tiktok.com/@grimes/video/7260723873530842414
  37. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CvSLo8WO1mG/?hl=en&img_index=1
  38. ↑
    Grimes Tik Tok comment 50
  39. ↑ https://x.com/Grimezsz/status/1901855312724000840
  40. ↑ https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1794484080110973072
  41. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/DG_jLgxyS3I/?img_index=1
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