Today’s celebrity tattoo news is a big one. And I mean that literally: Justin Bieber just got a huge new tattoo, sprawling basically his entire torso, from his chest down to his stomach.
The huge piece seems to cover up a few of the smaller tattoos that Bieber used to have on his stomach, the biggest of which was the large “Son of God” piece. It also incorporates a few other chest pieces Bieber already had, like the large cross and 1975 in Roman numerals that he has over his clavicle. It looks religious in nature, with angels and wings and several arches protected by a big bear and lion at the top. As Peoplenotes, he already had more than 60 different tattoos, but I’m not sure if the ink counts as one big one or several smaller ones, so I don’t know how to update that count.
His tattoo artist, Bang Bang, shared a few snaps of the process on his own Instagram. It looks like at least a part of the tattoo was done in Justin’s own backyard, and it took 26 hours to complete, spread out over three consecutive days.
He spoke to E! News about the inspiration and meaning behind the tattoo. "We added two angels, one on each side," he said. "Below each one, they're dominating the evil. Whenever I do an epic piece, there needs to be the positive and negative. There needs to be a balance...visually there needs to be contrast. Below each of the angels, there is a demon that needs to be defeated. The skeleton on one side and the serpent on the other."
"It's symbolic of Gothic art and the struggle between the light and dark, the good and the evil, Yin and Yang," he continued. "I wanted to make sure we had contrast in subject matter and imagery. The thing that made the most sense to me was a tattoo describing his spirituality. The animals he has, his spirit animals as well as the angels, his guardians. I was trying to make it super meaningful and not scattered."
"I'm coming back soon," Bang Bang added, laughing. "I did the bottom half of his front but still need to do the top."
