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Mikhaila Friel
- It's becoming more common for royals from around the world to get tattooed.
- Britain's Princess Eugenie showed off a tiny circle tattoo behind her ear at a royal event in June.
- Meanwhile, Princess Sofia of Sweden showed her back tattoo of a sun symbol on her wedding day.
King George V reportedly got a tattoo of a dragon on one arm and a tiger on the other while serving in the Royal Navy in 1881.
According to My London, George wrote about getting inked as a young prince in diary entries that were shown at a Buckingham Palace exhibition in 2019.
"We have spent a very pleasant week on shore up at Nara & Kioto, we saw a great deal in the time but we were not long enough, it was too hurried," he wrote in one entry, according to My London.
"Nearly every body on board has been tattooed. I have got a dragon on one arm done at Tokio & a tiger on the other arm done at Kioto," he added.
He chose the designs to signify the East and the West, according to Mail Online.
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Princess Eugenie showed off a new tattoo behind her ear during Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
On June 3, Eugenie debuted a new tattoo of a black circle behind her ear while attending a Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate her grandmother Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne.
Although Eugenie has never confirmed the meaning of the ink, W Magazine reports that the circle could be a reference to the Platinum Jubilee emblem, which is a circle.
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Lady Amelia Windsor has many tattoos, including a tiger on her back.
Amelia first shared a photo of the tattoo on Instagram in January 2021, writing: "Tiger's always got my back."
Amelia also has a tiny bow tattoo on her rib cage, which she showed off at The Serpentine Summer Party in London in 2018.
It's unclear when Amelia first got the tiny ink, however, she was first photographed with it at the event in London in June 2018.
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Additionally, Amelia has a number of designs on her arm and wrist area.
Claudio Traina, celebrity tattooist and founder of Sixty Ink, told Hello Magazine that smaller tattoos are likely more popular among royals because they are easier to conceal.
"I imagine it's probably still not easy for them to have tattoos in visible areas, and in my opinion, this is because in certain groups of society, tattoos are still not fully accepted," she said.
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Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark paid tribute to his time in the Royal Danish Navy with a shark tattoo on his calf.
The Danish prince was first seen with his calf tattoo in 2005, according to the Daily Mail, and has since shown it in public on several occasions, including at a summer photo call with his family in 2013.
The tattoo is the insignia of the Danish Navy's elite frogman corps, the Daily Mail reports.
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Here's a closer look at the design.
The prince has a second tattoo on his right bicep, which references the nickname "pingu," which he earned during his time in the Navy, the Daily Mail reports.
Princess Sofia of Sweden has a sun symbol inked on her back.
The tattoo was visible in photos of her wedding day in 2015, and more recently when Sofia attended a state banquet in Stockholm on October 11, 2022.
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Princess Stephanie of Monaco has a flower bracelet inked on her wrist, which she showed during a gala in 1997.
She also has tattoos of two jumping dolphins on her foot and a motif on her back, Tatler reports.
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