It was the Spice Girls who said that “friendship never ends,” but Selena Gomez and her BFFs have gone one step further, immortalizing their kinship with a little ink. What happened to those “best friend” necklaces? That’s about as much commitment to friendship as I’m comfortable with but, hey, to each her own.
The singer, who recently turned 26 herself, celebrated the 26th birthday of her best friend Courtney Barry along with pals Raquelle Stevens and Ashley Cook. The celebration included the foursome getting “spontaneous” tattoos. All four ladies got the number four tatted on their skin, because, well, there’s four of them. Selena and her bestie Courtney also got the number one tattooed on their side. Did Raquelle and Ashley get a two and three? I need to know.
Selena shared highlights of the tattoo adventure on Instagram, including giving Raquelle a supportive hug while she was experiencing “an actual panic attack” getting inked. Her captors professed her love for her friends, stating, “These women have stayed by my side for 7 years. 4, because you are my 4 for the rest of my life. I love you ladies.”
The singer took a break from her super busy schedule to do a little ink-biased bonding. She recently talked about her upcoming album on Instagram Live, telling fans that “It’s very honest, but playful and I felt like creatively it is in a really great direction. I just wanted it to feel like what is going on in my head, which was a lot.” She is also co-starring with Chloë Sevigny, Adam Driver and Bill Murray in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming zombie pic The Dead Don’t Die. And, if that’s not enough, she is launching a capsule collection of clothes, handbags and leather goods with Coach.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I liked tattoos. I have four of them myself, but they aren’t “for” anyone except myself. I always wonder when someone gets a tattoo for someone, like a boyfriend/spouse/friend, what happens if the relationship ends? Is there lots of regret, or do you just get a cover up job and move on? I guess Selena’s buddy tats are cute, and at least they’re small, right?
Photos: Instagram, Getty, WENN
I think it’s cute. It’s a tiiiny tattoo. And I’m of the mind that as long as you’re not getting a tattoo with a really skeezy partner, then you should at least be able to look back fondly on the good times when you see it. Or at the very least- keep it small enough that you can incorporate it into something else later haha.
I think the important thing with matchy tattoos is making sure you get a tattoo that can exist on its own. Don’t do names. Don’t be too over the top relationship-y. I know a couple that got a K and a Q tattooed on their hands. They broke up a few months later. I think it’s a gray area one – because at least you can kind of co-opt that as “hey, I’m King/Queen of my own life” or whatever. I’ve been in a relationship with my husband for almost half my life. We were considering getting tiny pieces done – something that wasn’t identical. Because at this point, if we were to break up – it was still an incredibly large – happy – portion of my life that I have no problem with having a memento of.
I have a soft spot for Selena. I probably always will. I think this is cute.
Yea, I agree Erinn. I’m pretty lax about tattoos because we’ll all be dead in a hundred years (not to be morbid) and does it really matter? Like you said, unless your tattoo is huge and about some sketchy so, I think you’ll be fine. I like Selena too, even though she’s said/done problematic stuff ( I mean who hasn’t in their early 20’s). I think she’s always trying to be a better person and I appreciate that.
My “sister” and I have matching tattoos and we got them in out 30’s we each have a girl holding a tin can phone with a string, basically symbolizing our friendship extending from when we were kids and across country. No matter where we are we will always stay connected 🙂 I love it. I’ve avoided same tats with partners my whole life, but my sis is forever.
It looks more like they had questionable moles removed than got tattoos.
I think it’s cute. They’re tiny so that’s ok, I guess.
I got a matching tattoo with my best friend of 20 years, which I let her pick out…and now we’re no longer friends (obviously having nothing to do with getting tattoos.) It’s on my ankle, and I don’t pay attention to it much honestly. It’s not that big of a deal to me. We were best friends for 25 years, so it’s not like I’ll ever forget she was in my life. I wouldn’t do it again though unless it was for my children or my mother!
I have a tattoo spanning my entire inner forearm for my kids. Water colour violets flr my daughter with my 2 boy’s names in flowy script. That’s the only tattoo I will get for anyone. My husband was jokingly miffed I wouldn’t add a little something for him in it as well 😂
The only ink I have “for” anyone is my little family tree. It’s a tree and some leaves have the name of a family member (my kids, my late husband, my current husband, my sister in law, and my best friends, who are family) micro needled on, while other leaves are blank or filled in. If I ever needed to “erase” someone from my tree, I could just get their leaf filled in and no harm no foul, I guess.
Wait, so, the girl who gave her a KIDNEY doesn’t even rank in her top three these days?
I just came here to say- where is Francia? I obviously don’t know her life, but I’m pretty sure she was going around telling the story of how her best friend gave her her kidney…
came here to say the same! hope they didn’t have a falling out, that’d be awful for Francia.
I was thinking the same thing. I thought she was her bestfriend?
Sad.
was just about to ask the same thing!
I was looking to see if someone else mentioned her. Where is Francia?! I realize you can have several close friends, all of whom can be like sisters, but if you call someone your number one, you would think it’d be the girl who gave you her kidney unasked – especially since that’s the way she and Francia told that story.
Instagram tells us that Francia’s birthday was August 4th. Not a peep from Selena. I wonder what’s going on here.
Is her #1 at least the girl who gave her the kidney?!
I hope Francia’s feelings aren’t hurt, maybe she and Selena are all good calling many their ‘best’ friend but for some reason I think my bestie (especially if she gave me a kidney), would be like, “what????? I thought I was your main best friend??!!” But what do I know?Everyone is different.
Am I the only one who finds it really weird that Francia Raisa is not on the list of Selena’s best friends?
Like, girl, that woman donated you a kidney and you’re blowing up smoke up these other girls’ a*ses?
For me, that just supports the theory that Selena bought herself that kidney.
That’s a really bizarre theory. There were pictures of both of them in the hospital, did they pay for that photo shoot too? We can have many best friends, I don’t think Francia is part of that crowd, and that’s ok. You don’t need to pay homage to your donor on every picture from Instagram.
But has anyone seen them together since the transplant? Apart from photo ops and the one interview they did?
There is a person out there who gave a piece of herself so you could survive and you tout your group of friends on IG with BS inspirational tropes that mean nothing.
She should have been getting Raisa’s initials tattooed and not the number 4…like what even is that?
Unless, and that brings me back to my original theory, they were never that good of friends, she was just compatible and she was heavily rewarded afterward….
In any case, these things have a way of coming to light. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next news about Selena will be about her falling out with Raisa, and rightfully so.
Her and Francia have been friends for years. There are tons of pictures of them together in the past, way before her lupus was known. They lived together. Why does everything have to be a conspiracy? You don’t know if they have a tattoo together, or Francia doesn’t want a tattoo together, or if they’ve had a fallen out. None of that would prove that Selena paid for a kidney. Selena does not owe Francia a friendship tattoo because of it.