Shawn Mendes Tattoos: Guide to His Ink Designs and Meanings

You guys may not know this, but Shawn Mendes has slowly been adding tattoos all over his body. Over the years, the singer has racked up a collection of more than 10 permanent ink designs, and each one has a super powerful meaning behind it.

Tattoo artist Kane Navasard has been sharing images of the singer’s ink designs on social media over the years. In October 2020, the artist posted a picture of Shawn’s tat and fans were convinced that the words “little sunflower” inked on his ribcage are a tribute to Camila Cabello because they’re her “favorite” flower, as revealed in a Twitter post from 2015. “For his little sunflower. On the man @shawnmendes,” Kane captioned his post.

Shawn also added two more in May 2021, one reading “Good Boy” and other that read “Fe.” At the time, he shared pictures from his tattoo session and Camila commented a series of cat emojis on the Instagram post.

In 2016, the “In My Blood” crooner debuted his first tattoo during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “It’s a guitar … I had this idea for a year before I got the tattoo, but’s kind of like the woods here and it’s reflected on water, a sound wave connecting to the city — being Toronto,” he explained. “Actually, the sound wave is my parents and my sister saying ‘I love you.’ So it’s a connection between home, work, and family … it’s cool.”

That’s not the only family-oriented tattoo Shawn has gotten over the years, he even has multiple dedicated to his younger sister, Aaliyah Mendes. How sweet is that?! But what do his other tattoos mean and do those ones have any special stories behind them? Not to worry, people, because we’ve got you guys covered. We went ahead and made you a complete guide to the Canadian cutie’s other ink designs, so that you can keep track of his growing collection. And get this — some of them were actually drawn by fans! So cool, right? He even got one with Camila.

Scroll through our gallery to check out all of Shawn’s tattoos and the inspiration behind them.

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An Elephant on His Finger

The singer showed off this design in a March 2022 Instagram Stories post.

“I was trying to convince [my mom] to get a tattoo for a while, and this is kind of the only thing she would do because she’s obsessed with elephants — and they’re pretty cool animals actually if you read about them,” he told GQ. “So yeah, I was pretty pumped to have it.”

A Guitar on His Arm

Shawn’s first ink design was a guitar on his forearm. But it’s not any old guitar. The musical instrument incorporates images of trees, a lake and the Toronto skyline — which is where the singer grew up. But the most special aspect of this particular design though is that the base is made up of the sounds waves from an audio clip of his parents saying, “I love you.” TOO. CUTE.

“It was something I had been thinking about for over a year before I got it — because I really wanted to make sure my first tattoo was something I’d be happy with forever. It was really exciting getting it, actually, because I had thought about it for so long,” he also said in an interview.

A Butterfly on His Arm.

The “In My Blood” crooner added an intricate butterfly tattoo to his left forearm in August 2019. And the story behind it is seriously so touching. It turns out, Shawn got the inspiration for the new body art from a fan on Twitter! A super talented supporter photoshopped one of her drawings onto a photo of him, and when it caught Shawn’s eye, he just had to go and get it tattooed onto his body for real! He messaged the fan and asked her to send him a photo of the drawing.

i love ONE man🥺 pic.twitter.com/7YIV4x3sUV

— 𝐤𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐚 (@nasaruins) July 18, 2019

And next thing we knew, it was permanently inked on his body.

A Lightbulb on His Shoulder

The cutie has a big lightbulb tattooed onto his shoulder, and the meaning behind it is seriously touching. The lightbulb itself is symbolic for his Illuminate Tour, and the flowers inside are said to be for his mom since they’re her favorites.

“I got it when I was in Oslo on tour. I really wanted something to remember this time of my life. It’s a lightbulb that has roots and a colored flower inside,” he once said of the ink design.