The Juicy Stories Behind Some of Your Favorite Celebrity Tattoos

Published on April 21, 2025 at 9:05 AM

Getty

Anyone who even remotely keeps up with the world of tattooing is familiar with the name Keith "Bang Bang" McCurdy. And even if you don't think you know who he is, you've definitely seen his work. Rihanna's instantly recognizable hand tattoo, Cara Delevingne's iconic lion finger ink, and so many more designs worn by your favorite celebrities are all his handiwork.

Bang Bang has been in the business for more than 20 years. Back in 2004, his first celebrity client was rapper and record producer Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys's husband. That tattoo set the rest of Bang's career in motion. From there, it snowballed — then came Katy Perry, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and countless more. To date, Bang Bang estimates that he's completed thousands of tattoos on A-listers; too many to count, really.

Bang Bang is incredibly talented at what he does, but the experience you get at Bang Bang Tattoo, his studio in NYC that he opened 10 years ago, also helps set him apart. "When we opened the studio, we looked at every single piece of the experience for clients — what's our booking process, what's our hospitality look like?" he says. That bespoke service made it an experience, but as an innovator in the space, Bang Bang is always looking for ways to improve. And that's true with his new launch of Forever Care.

It felt inauthentic to the brand experience to send clients away with a shopping list for the local drugstore to purchase aftercare products; Bang Bang wanted to truly deliver on those full-service claims by having his own line to send people off with. "We started with formulation and testing 10 years ago, and many of the most famous celebrity tattoos we've made as a company used Forever Care in early testing and development," he says. "People have seen the result of this for years, and now they get to see the product."

The Forever Care lineup includes a Hydrating Balm, Body Bar Soap, and Clarifying Lotion, all designed to nourish your ink post-appointment. Caring about your entire tattoo experience is what the Bang Bang studio does best, and that, along with his sheer talent, is what keeps the A-listers walking through his studio door (or flying him to exotic locations on their private jets . . . more on that ahead).

"A great tattoo defines you," Bang Bang says. "And we find that on these celebrities." So, without further ado, keep reading as Bang Bang rounds up his top five favorite celebrity tattoos and shares some stories from behind the scenes.

Rihanna's Hand Tattoos

Rihanna's hand tattoo has become synonymous with the singer. Ahead of her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, "there were Super Bowl ads of her hand holding a football, and you knew everything that you needed to be told. There was no text that had to go along with that — you knew that's Rihanna by that tattoo. It's unique to her."

That ink was actually a cover-up design. "It was fixing something that wasn't great, and it turned into something really fun," Bang Bang says. "But my relationship with Rihanna is probably better than any of them — [she's a] repeat client that I've tattooed for many years."

Cara Delevingne's Lion Finger Tattoo

Cara Delevingne is covered in tattoos, and quite a few of them are Bang Bang's work. "Cara's lion tattoo may have been, for a period of time, the most famous tattoo in the world," he says. Done during the height of the model's career, the ink was visible in countless luxury campaigns. "It was all over Harrods, it was all over Burberry ads, and she was on every fashion magazine."

The story behind this tiny illustration on the model's finger is a funny one. "She had originally wanted me to write the word 'lion' on her fingers, but I told her no. I said, 'We should do this instead.' And to her credit, she was like, 'Cool, let's do it,'" Bang Bang recalls.

Selena Gomez’s Watercolor Back Tattoo

Bang Bang's favorite tattoo of Selena Gomez's also relates to Delevingne. The friends have a matching design, which they got in 2021. "Selena designed it, and then we were going to do it the following week, and Cara came in the next day and got it before Selena did," he says. Delevingne's ink is on her side, while Gomez has it in the middle of her upper back.

"That's my favorite tattoo of [Selena's]. It healed really beautifully, and it was the first time I had ever really done that style of tattooing, which is daunting, knowing the world will see it, but it came out cool."

Kylie Jenner's Red Heart Tattoo

Kylie Jenner is known for a lot of things, but her tattoos aren't really one of them. The entrepreneur and reality TV star has a handful of tiny tattoos scattered across her arms and legs. Bang Bang did her first-ever tattoo when she was just 18 years old — inking her with a dainty red heart on the back of her arm, just above her elbow.

"I don't think tattoos need to be prominent," Bang Bang says. "In some cases, a tattoo that's too prominent can feel out of place. A lot of decisions that I make [when tattooing] on people are to not distract from who they are, just to add to it. And I don't think Kylie's tattoos distract from her at all."

Bang Bang has a fun little ritual that he likes to do after meeting a new celebrity for the first time. "Sometimes I ask for an autograph, which is for them to tattoo me back," he says. "So Kylie at 18 gave me a tattoo as well — it's a little red 'K' and a little crown," as a nod to the star's nickname, King Kylie.

Justin Bieber's "Believe" Tattoo

Bang Bang has tattooed in some pretty unique locales, from stars' homes to vacation villas, but the setting of Justin Bieber's "believe" tattoo takes the cake because he did it on a moving airplane. "It's the most impressive tattoo I've ever made," Bang says.

Bang Bang got a phone call out of the blue from an unknown number, and it turned out to be Bieber inviting him to Panama. The tattooist assumed he meant Panama City, FL, not Panama, the country in Central America — but he still went. While there, Bang did a handful of tattoos, like the cross on Bieber's chest and a couple of designs for his friends. The day they left, Bang Bang was invited to fly with the group on a private jet. "I had never been on a private jet, so of course, I just said yes."

One thing led to another, and before he knew it, he was setting up to tattoo on the airplane. "Airplanes are quite shaky super hard to tattoo. There's no great lighting there," Bang Bang says. "We had to make sure the pilots were OK with me plugging something into the power, and that was a little scary. I was like, 'All right, let's find out if we shut this plane down when I turn this thing on.'" That's the story behind Bieber's "believe" tattoo on his inner arm.

Getty

Jessica Harrington (she/her) is the senior editor of PS Beauty, where she oversees coverage around makeup, skin care, hair, tattoos, and more. With more than eight years of industry experience, she has interviewed countless celebrities, reported on hundreds of beauty trends, and swatched more lipsticks than she can count. Prior to PS, Jessica worked for publications such as Makeup.com, Skincare.com, and The Zoe Report.