Selena Gomez has gotten at least 18 tattoos. Here's where they are and what they all mean. (2024)

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Gomez's first tattoo is a small music note on the side of her right-hand wrist.

When Gomez debuted her new ink in 2012, fans originally thought it was a tiny black heart.

But the 19-year-old set the story straight about her first tattoo at a pre-Oscars party.

"It's a music note," Gomez told Access Hollywood. "Everybody thought that it was a heart for some reason, but music is a big influence in my life."

"I was named after a singer, I'm a singer and a lot of other personal reasons," she explained, referring to the late Latina singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez.

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Next, she got the number 76 in Roman numerals on the back of her neck.

Gomez got her second tattoo, "LXXVI," in 2012 from the famous New York City-based artist Keith Scott "Bang Bang" McCurdy.

"The tattoo was a tribute to a family member who she said means a lot to her," Bang Bang told the Daily Mail.

Over one year later, Gomez posted a photo of the ink with the caption, "1976."

It's presumably a tribute to her mother, Mandy Teefey, who was born in 1976 and was just 16 years old when she gave birth to Gomez.

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She has "God who strengthens me" written on her right thigh.

Gomez got her third tattoo on her thigh sometime in 2012, but kept it concealed from the public for more than one year.

"I've done a pretty good job of hiding it," she told Ryan Seacrest during a radio interview in 2013.

After she was photographed at the beach and fans noticed the ink, Gomez explained to Seacrest that "God who strengthens me" is an altered excerpt from her favorite Bible passage, Philippians 4:13.

She got a lowercase "G" on her neck to honor her sister, Gracie.

No one knows exactly when Gomez inked this dainty initial, but she confirmed in a 2015 interview with Refinery29 that the "G" stands for Gracie, her half-sister who was born in 2013.

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Gomez has "Love Yourself First" written in Arabic on the upper-right side of her back.

Gomez was inked by Bang Bang again in 2014.

"Selena already had it written out how she wanted," he told E! News, adding, "she had been wanting this one for a while."

"We played with it a bit laying it out, until we found the perfect spot," he said. "She loved it; she flipped out."

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She has a symbol on her left hip, apparently commemorating the time she met one of her best friends.

It's unclear when Gomez got this tattoo, but fans spotted its faint outline on Gomez's hip in 2015, when she was photographed at the beach.

Although many fans and media outlets have identified this design as the sacred "Om" symbol, Gomez told Refinery29 that it's actually a date.

As paraphrased by writer Heather Wood Rudulph, the tattoo on her left hip "represents when she met one of her best friends eight years ago."

The following year, Gomez posted a photo of a temporary tattoo sheet with replicas of her own pieces. The abstract symbol in question looks like "X," "3," and "1" combined in a curly font.

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Gomez has the word "sunshine" on her right foot.

Gomez got this tattoo sometime before April 2016, as it was included on the temporary tattoo sheet sold on the "Revival" tour as merchandise.

Before hitting the road, Gomez revealed on Instagram that all of her own pieces would be included on the sheet.

"Each and every one of them mean so much to me," she wrote. "I have 7 tattoos (and counting)."

Gomez has never spoken about this tattoo's meaning, but in 2016, she referred to her grandma as "my sunshine" on Twitter.

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Gomez, Alisha Boe, and Tommy Dorfman got matching semicolons on their wrists.

Gomez executive produced the controversial Netflix series "13 Reasons Why," which premiered in 2017.

Shortly after, Gomez joined the show's stars Alisha Boe (who played Hannah's ex-BFF Jessica) and Tommy Dorfman (who played poet Ryan Shaver) for a tattoo session in Hollywood.

Their matching semicolonsrepresent mental healthawareness and suicide prevention.

"Project semicolon is a movement dedicated to presenting hope for those suffering from depression, thoughts of suicide, addiction, and self-injury," Boe wrote on Instagram.

Amy Bleuel, whom Boe referenced in her caption, was the mental-health activist who started the mental-health non-profit Project Semicolon. According to Bleuel's interview with "The Mighty" the inspiration behind the semicolon for a mental-health organization is derived from its grammatical use.

"In literature, an author uses a semicolon to not end a sentence but to continue on," she said. "We see it as you are the author and your life is the sentence. You're choosing to keep going."

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Gomez and her best friend have matching "1" tattoos.

Gomez has a "1" on the right side of her rib cage as a tribute to her friendship with Courtney Lopez (née Barry) — whom she calls her "actual #1."

Gomez revealed their tiny matching tattoos in a 2018 birthday post for her pal.

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The same day, she and three friends got matching "4" tattoos.

Gomez and her three closest friends — Lopez, Ashley Cook, and Raquelle Stevens — have identical "4" tattoos on different parts of their bodies.

Gomez's "4" is on her right forearm, just underneath the crease of her elbow. She shared a photo of herself getting inked in a slideshow on Instagram.

"#4 because these women have stayed by my side for 7 years," she wrote in her caption. "4, because you are my 4 for the rest of my life. I love you ladies. You all inspire me to be better, stronger, closer to god and we have lived the most INSANE story together already. Can't wait for 50 more!!"

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She got matching arrows with Julia Michaels in 2019.

Gomez and Michaels are close friends and collaborators; Michaels has cowritten many of Gomez's best songs, including "Lose You to Love Me" and "Bad Liar."

On November 11, 2019, Gomez made a surprise appearance at Michaels' concert in Los Angeles. After they performed their duet "Anxiety" and shared a smooch onstage, they got matching tattoos backstage from artists London Reese and Brad Reis.

The women got small, identical arrows inked on the bases of their thumbs, which point towards each other when they hold hands.

"It's tatted.. my arrow points to you forever," Gomez wrote on her Instagram story.

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She revealed her biggest tattoo yet, prayer hands on her left thigh, in 2019.

Gomez posted a collage of Polaroid photos on November 24, 2019, taken backstage at the 2019 American Music Awards.

In one photo, Gomez lifts up her dress to reveal a large tattoo on her upper-left thigh: two hands joined in prayer, with a rosary draped around them.

Once again, the design was inked by Bang Bang, who shared photos of the session on his own Instagram.

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Gomez inked the date sheunderwent her kidney transplant on the back of her right arm.

Fans caught glimpses of the numerical design above Gomez's right elbow during her "Rare" era, namely in music videos and press photos.

Inan interview with CapitalFM in December 2019, Gomez revealed that she inked the date she underwent a kidney transplant. She wasrushed to the hospital for kidney failure in the summer of 2017 as a result of her lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease.

Gomez said her friend and donor Francia Raisa has a matching tattoo: "I did that with the girl who gave me the kidney."

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She has the word "Rare," the title of her third solo album, on her neck.

Gomez got another tattoo from Bang Bang in January 2020, to mark the release of her third solo album.

She inked the title, "Rare," in thin black lettering on the right side of her neck.

"Did it again," she wrote on Instagram, tagging Bang Bang and adding a butterfly emoji.

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She got a tiny cross on her left collarbone in April 2021.

Gomez's go-to artist Bang Bang unveiled Gomez's newest tattoo with a short video on Instagram.

The black-and-white clip shows a close-up of the dainty cross on her collarbone, before panning out to show Gomez grinning and reaffixing her mask.

"I'm very, very spiritual," she recently told Vogue. "I believe in God, but I'm not religious. I've been a Christian for a while now. I don't talk about it too much — I want to, but it's gotten a bad rep. I just want to make it clear that I love being able to have my faith, and believe in what I believe in, and that truly is what gets me through."

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Gomez got a large pink rose on her upper back in December 2021.

Bang Bang Tattoo posted a black-and-white photo of Gomez on December 15, 2021 with her back turned towards the camera. The image showed new ink that starts at the base of her neck and stretches down in between her shoulder blades.

Two weeks later, the celebrity artist shared an up-close image of the tattoo: a pink watercolor rose that sits just below her Roman numerals.

The following month, Gomez revealed that Cara Delevingne partially inspired the design.

"It means a couple of different things," Gomez said on "Live with Kelly and Ryan.""Me and Cara, one of my best friends — I was maybe 16 when I met her — she calls me rosebud. So it's a nickname. And I've always wanted a rose and now I got one. And I love it."

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She got a matching "angel" tattoo with Nicola Peltz.

Gomez rang in 2023 with a group of close friends in Cabo, Mexico, including newlyweds Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham.

It appears Gomez has grown very close with the couple — especially Peltz, who revealed their matching tattoos on her Instagram story.

Although Peltz did not tag Gomez, adding only a white heart emoji, their arms can be identified by their sleeves; the two women had previously posed for photos in matching silver dresses.

Gomez has an unidentified tattoo on her right ankle.

In Gomez's music video for "Single Soon," a small tattoo can be spotted on her right ankle, just a few inches away from her "sunshine."