They say that if two people get the same tattoo, or that if you get a tattoo of someone’s name, you’re destined to break up — my partner and I have had matching tattoos now for I think seven or eight years and while there have most definitely been bumpy patches, there’s been absolutely no manifestation of the curse (the opposite, really). In this entry I wanted to share a collection of matching and wedding tattoos… The majority (although not all) of the folks are unaffected so far.
These first very pretty bands were done by Hanama.
Lots more continue after the break.
Above on the left is a pair of binary star systems by Jay Brown at Falling Moon in Moscow ID, and on the right are a pair of matching infinity tatttoos on a married couple by Jerry at Celebrity’s in Lakewood. Below left, the kanji says “love without a reason” by Chad at In Your Face Tattooz in Beaver Dam, WI, and on the right are my friends Barry and Jen, tattooed at Santa Cruz Tattoo.
Next are some matching hearts. I’m not sure who did the ones on the left, but the ones on the right are by Nate at Red’s Tattoos in Providence, Rhode Island, having been done right before her husband left for his new Air Force base assignment.
The matching tattoos below left are by Heidi at Millenium in Fort Collins, CO, and the ones on the right (artist unknown) are matching Trees of Gondor from JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings.
The “Infinitas” tattoos on the left below (on Repeating) are sadly — or maybe fortunately? — ones where the curse did come true (done by AJ at Skin Tight). The matching cubes on the right are by Eric at Liberty Tattoos in Atlanta, Georgia.
The matching stars are by Bill Claydon at Bill Claydon’s World of Tattoos in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the matching “Amour” tattoos were done by Al B. at Lion’s Den in Salem, NH.
Matt Ellis at Way Cool Uptown in North York (Toronto), Ontario, did these matching “PUNX” inner lip tattoos on a couple that’s been together for three years and says they don’t believe in the curse. The hearts on the right are also to celebrate a three year anniversary (of their wedding, not of dating).
The matching music love notes are a home tattoo done on this couple, and the tattoo below right – “No day but today” – is also musical in nature. They got it done right before they saw RENT.
The matching 8-8-3 diamonds below left were done by Steve at Addictive in London, Ontario, and the matching Sanskrit “Om” tattoos were done on a married couple by Laurie at Jetty Road Tattoo in Glenleg, SA.
Girlgamer and her husband got matching mobius strip tattoos done by Cooper at Solid State Tattoo in Salisbury, MD, and Kevin and Ashley got the tattoo below right instead of wearing wedding bands.
Eyeball Kid and his wife Kimberly got their wedding bands (below left) by Johnny at Hanky Panky in Amsterdam, and Moony‘s wedding ink (featured previously) was done by Luc at Evolution Ink in Winnipeg, Manitoba on the day of the wedding.
Below left, Bena and Evil_Lina‘s wedding tattoos are Sanskrit for “Love”. The wedding stars on the right are by Tommy at Triple Seven Tattoo in Alhaus, Germany.
The wedding bands — “J” and “A” — on the left were started by an artist in Whitby, ON, but then finished by Jamie (the “J” in the tattoos), and on the right the wedding tattoos are the wedding and anniversary dates, done by Scott Norick at S and J Tattoo in Lancaster, CA.
The Celtic wedding bands were done at Krazy Kats Tattoos in Kettering, Ohio, and the wedding tattoos below right were done at Rite of Passage Tattoo in Victor, New York.
Matt (“M”) and Tabitha (“T”) had their wedding bands, below left, inked by Elijah of Slingin’ Ink in Scranton, PA, and the wedding ring name tattoos below left were done by Smiley in Long Beach, California.
Finally, the wedding bands below left were inked on the engagement day, and the wedding band tattoos were done Silver City Tattoo in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia.
Here’s to the power of love breaking curses!
BME/News and Modblog highlight only a small fraction of what
I wonder if the “K” “A” tattoos are suppoesed to be in reference to “Ka” as in “destiny”, ala Stephen Kings Dark Tower. That would be rad…
These are all so pretty. Screw curses!
Oh, mixed emotions.
First reaction: D’awwwwwwwww, lovebirds!
Second reaction: I hope they have enough cash to spare to remove those things.
Hmmm.
#1… I think it’s because their names are Kevin and Ashley 😛
Fantastic!!
I love them.
I need to prod the hubby till we get one. I don’t believe in the curse either.
😉
aww they’re all lovely, loving the wedding tattoos, slightly tribal yet not. very pretty.
Hell yeah! That’s awesome!!
I’m getting married this Halloween, and we’re getting wedding tattoos aswell (cliche, or overdone, maybe.. but oh well), and I’m sooooo excited.
That curse is bullshit…in the same fantasy realm where a doctor really CAN’T give you an epidural through a tattoo. haha
(Btw, it’s “Tolkien”, not “Tolkein”.)
The trees are wonderful, and it’s great to see other people with Tolkien/LotR tattoos!
Unless the person had past away, or was family as in blood, blood relations, I could never get matching reminders of an eternal tie.. (even if they were my husband) / vise versa)
I really enjoy matching tattoos, but I don’t know if I could ever get one myself. But then maybe that’s just because I’ve never met anyone who could really make me believe in forever.
80% if those will look like blobs in 5 yrs. but some of them are cute. i liked the diamonds
the curse be damned!
*Sniff* My vagina and my right hand are going to get matching tattoos, ‘cos at these rate no-one else will have me. 🙁
Yeah are tattoos made it on here! sweet! Thank you Shannon, for posting this! just for clarification, the wedding date tattoos, (4th from bottom, right side) were done by Scott Norick, and we know have a new business, Ink Stay Tattoo
What is 8-8-3?
akibare – I’d assume that it’s their wedding or meeting day
maz: i’d have you but youre a bit far away darlin. come to my side of the pond, then we can talk :p
i really like the binary system tats they’s pretty
beautiful ^.^
My ex and I got our matching tattoos after we broke up, he agreed then assuming the curse couldn’t touch us that way. The people in the tattoo shop seemed amused by the idea. Too bad I don’t have a photo of us both.
#16 – Aha. Yeah, that does make sense.
Me and hub have matching sleeves plus got his nickname tatt on me… I heard about this “curse”.. well it’s been 10 years, that’s like a long time curse to “happen” !
my wife and I have matching drawings our son drew…so even if we do ever split it would still have possitive feeling.
Awww…
…seeing people commit to each other like this always makes me feel all warm n fuzzy 🙂
i really like this idea – i certainly wouldn’t marry someone if i wasn’t willing to get tattoos. i like the idea of permanence and forever, and this illustrates that sentiment more than an overpriced diamond (stupid de beers company :).
me and ad having matching love birds on the back of both our arms. and we rule!
I’m not sure about MATCHING tattoos, but i see nothing wrong with a tattoo signifying a relationship.
even if the relationship breaks down, you can never erase that part of your life. it will ALWAYS be aa part of your history, so it will always be a significant [tattoo-worthy] event, no matter how it turns out.
[if you follow the life-chronical theme of tattoos, hehe]
They are all very beautiful.
Wait up Shannon- matching tattoos are not a curse at all. Name tattoos are the curse.
Firstly, all these tattoos are lovely 🙂
But let me just say that there is no curse and its a load of bullshit. In America there are over 50% of marriages getting divorced. With such a high rate of people eventually getting divorced sometime in their marriage, its most likely to happen whether or not they decide to get matching tattoos or eachothers names. Same goes for just a boyfriend-girlfriend type of relationship, it’s going to end somewhere along the lines unless you’re “meant” to be together.
Like someone already mentioned anyway, its not as if getting the tattoos would ever really be a regretful thing. If they meant that much to you at the time, then you’ll remember them 50 years later with or without a tattoo signifying them. So they’ll always be a part of your life.
I think name tattoos and matching tattoos are great ideas. It isn’t for everyone though and i respect that, but for the people that choose not to get that kind of stuff, don’t say its some sort of a “curse” 🙂
I got a matching tattoo with my best friend. About a month passed and now we aren’t on speaking terms. People who hear about it blame the curse and I giggle because even though a prime example, I don’t believe it.
I still love that Johnny Depp is a self professed “Wino Forever” thanks to the name tattoo curse… 😀
ah! binary stars! i love the idea behind binary stars.
Shannon, I recall a few years ago you writing that you got matching tattoos with your partner and did soon after suffer the curse? Is my memory making things up, or did something change?
No, it’s true — different partner; that’s a story from 1997. I’m good friends with them still though.
I remember seeing some of these when they were first posted. They always make me smile. Thanks for sharing, Shannon 🙂
It completely weirded me out to see Slingin’ Ink. I went to there to get some stuff done. As much as Scranton gets fame for ‘The Office’ its still cool to see it mentioned for OTHER reasons.
That’s an awesome tattoo Elijah did too.
How lovely! I have matching tattoos with two people in my life. A love and a best friend. It’s actually the same tattoo Just the love’s is the same color as mine and the best friend got hers in a different color. I don’t regret it a bit. It will always be a part of us no matter what path we take in life.
yay thats me!
I don’t really believe in curses…not in that kind of…Actually a few months ago I tried to get a tattoo with my girlfriend’s name…but she didn’t like the idea =( really bad…
Some cultures believe that tattoos are a way of rendering a soul recognisable after death; my fiance and I got matching sole tattoos as a method of finding each other in the afterlife (aw .. so sweet!)
We split up years ago and I don’t regret the tattoo – it reminds me of good times – and at least I’ll know which ethereal being to avoid after I die lol
Most of these I really really like. I love matching tattoos and I don’t believe in “the Curse”. What I do believe is, that placing names (that aren’t those of your children/parents) is in general, rather stupid.
Me and my boyfriend are sure we’ll get a plain black ring done (inspired by our favorite movie: The Fountain).
makes a much better impression about there love than some stone. to love.
Awww, this is so sweet. It’s nice to see pics of others who did the same as my wife and I did. ‘Curse’ be damned. It’s a very strong visual reminder of our very happy wedding day and of the vows we’ve made to each other.
I couldn’t think of any ring that would make me happier than a tattooed one. I hate jewelery for the most part except for in the ears, and I feel like I have found the one that marriage actually means something to me with, so yeah it’s cool Kim and I made it here!!!
I think these tats are beautiful. I don’t believe in the curse, but if it doesn’t work out I just see it as being a chapter of your life. I’m going to get a tatto with my fiance’ of the date we got together. (:
I think matching tattoos are great. If you enjoy tattoos it can be a way of story telling of a time. My boyfriend and I have the word Mine tattooed to each other’s chest. Kind of corny but it means so much to me.
me and my boyfriend of five years are getting wedding tattoos soon and i think if you have the balls to get married then you should have the balls to stay together marriage is forever if you have any doubts or objections dont do it that’s why so amny people get divorced i love the wedding tattoos
they are gorgeous,inexpensive,and forever like marriage is supposed to be
Me and my twin sister want to get matching tatoos, any suggestions?
I think these are sweeeet! Im a little curious as to why the couple with the two separate dates on their fingers are different, perhaps engagement day and wedding day? My honey and will get tattoos on out fingers or somewhere something like this, we are working on a design…
I think these are sweeeet! Im a little curious as to why the couple with the two separate dates on their fingers are different, perhaps engagement day and wedding day? My honey and will get tattoos on out fingers or somewhere something like this, we are working on a design…
hehehe
I love the idea of wedding tattoos. My (new) hubby and I got matching barcode tattoos when we were first together (the numbers under mine spell out his name and the numbers under his spell out my name).. we are a good example of the curse being bogus because 6 years later (last month!) we got married and now we are in the process of designing matching wedding tattoos. I’ll be sure to email a pic in when I’m done if you want!
I think they’re amazing!!! Just had ours done yesterday!!! I don’t believe in an curses ~ plus we’ve been married for 10 years and have 2 beautiful children together~
my man and i have been talking about this this would be both of our third and last marriage and if we are gonna do so we are gonna stick it out . tatted bands would signify this so very well ..but i haven’t seen any yet that fit our personality’s.. I’m probably gonna have to sit down with him and design them our selves..
With regards to the people saying you won’t regret having someone’s name tattooed on you, well my fiancee has his ex-wife’s name tattooed on his upper arm and he has regretted it since before they split up and try putting yourself in my shoes, it’s really not nice seeing another woman’s name on your blokes arm every day and he is now looking for a cover-up tattoo before we get married at the end of the year, sorry but a wedding/marriage is about new beginnings not the past and there is no way I am starting married life with a constant reminder of his ex, I don’t have my ex-husband’s name tattooed on me and if I did I would have it removed or covered up