How many tattoos do all of BTS’s members have?

The members of BTS are not only known for their prolific musicality but also their charming good looks. There are many things one could say are attractive about BTS: their suave dance moves, their trendy hairstyles, their winsome smiles, their killer fashion – the Bangtan Boys have it going on. 

One physicality not as often spoken about is BTS’s collection of tattoos. Not all of the BTS members have tattoos and the penchant for showing them off varies among members. The opinion of ARMY on BTS members having tattoos varies too. Some water at the mouth each time a Bangtan Boy flashes some ink while others shake their head at the tattoos. 

After all, many in ARMY practically view the bodies of BTS as holy. Like traditions of old, it might seem like sacrilege to deface their bodies with ink. Some members of BTS have mixed feelings about whether to sport body art or not. In fact, most of them don’t but you might be surprised at how many tattoos they have between them. 

Tattoos & Korean culture 

Although body alterations like getting rid of monolids and softening jawlines are common practice in Korea, tattoos still carry a pretty strong stigma. Like Japan and China, tattoos are seen as a sign of criminality in Korea because they have a long history of being intertwined with organized crime in the region.  

Getting tattoos by anyone other than a medical professional is actually banned in Korea, and you’re forbidden to do the mandatory military service asked of all Korean young men if you have any large tattoos. The younger generation is becoming a lot more open to the idea of tattoos because of Western pop culture, but many still view it as body disfiguration rather than art. 

This has made it a somewhat controversial issue when K-Pop stars have chosen to follow in the footsteps of their Western counterparts. A big reason why most BTS members don’t have tattoos is because of how tattoos are viewed in their culture. Nonetheless, some of the Bangtan Boys have stepped out of the box of conventionality. Let’s look at which ones. 

The BTS members that don’t have tattoos 

V is one of the BTS members without any tattoos. When he got two fake tattoos for BTS’s “ON” music video, fans went wild. Speculation hit the internet like a wildfire. One of the tattoos was the phrase “the shadow like me” on V’s right cheek. The other was a veiny tattoo up the left side of his neck that almost made V’s neck appear to be cracked. 

“Did V really get a tattoo?” “OMG ~ Tae is so hot with these tattoos! ~” “That’s a temporary paint which V has done.” The YouTube comments were blowing up about V’s tattoos, and of course the people who said it was temporary were correct. K-Pop stars with face tattoos are basically unheard of. ARMY definitely enjoyed V’s ink while it lasted though. 

J-Hope is another BTS member with no tattoos. He briefly experimented with temporary tattoos in 2018 when he posted a picture of himself with a tiny moon tattoo behind one ear and tiny sun behind the other on the official BTS twitter account. 

Neither Jin nor RM have shown any interest in having tattoos. They haven’t even experimented with any temporary ink. Some fans are so curious as to what they would look like with tatts that they’ve photoshopped them with fake ones for fun. RM has been photoshopped with a tattoo sleeve and Jin has been photoshopped with ink on his biceps & forearms.  

Suga doesn’t have any tattoos for future professional reasons. Though Suga says he used to really want tattoos when he was younger, he said he changed his mind when he turned twenty. Suga said he noticed Pharell Williams was erasing his tattoo and he realized himself that he doesn’t want tattoos to hold him back. “There is something I want to do in the future,” said Suga. 

“I want to do some charity work, but tattoos could be seen negatively, so I am holding myself back.” He does have a quirky tattoo in mind though. Suga says he’d like to get a tattoo of a dot on his toe so no one will see it. It’d be like a little joke just for him. Can you imagine Suga being asked if he has tatts and then taking off his sock to show someone a dot when asked what it is? It’s a splendidly hilarious idea. 

Jimin’s tattoos 

Jimin seems to have one tattoo. What started as a temporary tatt for a BTS performance featuring their song “Intro: Never Mind,” became a permanent tattoo years later. The temporary tattoo was revealed in 2014, but Jimin flashed a peek of it to the crowd at a 2019 concert during which fans went wild. 

Jimin was seen in a tattoo parlor in November of 2018, so it’s speculated that he might have gotten it way back then. Of course, Jimin has neither confirmed nor denied the tattoo’s existence so technically we don’t know if it truly is a permanent tattoo. 

Jungkook’s tattoos 

Jungkook has the most tattoos of all and it’s hard to keep count or determine whether they’re all real for that matter, since they’re always being covered up. The most well-known tattoo Jungkook has is the “ARMY” tattoo on his hand. This tatt is said to have multiple meanings. The first and obvious meaning is it being a tribute to the band’s devoted fanbase. 

The second conjectured meaning is that it stands for the names of all the members in the band. The ‘A’ in “ARMY” is actually upside down so it looks like a ‘V’. So basically, it would  be ‘V’ for V, ‘RM’ for RM, ‘Y’ for Yoongi (Suga), and ‘J’ for Jin, J-Hope, & Jimin. The ‘J’ is tatted above the M in “ARMY” on its own. 

Jungkook also has been reported to be seen with these tattoos on his right arm: “RATHER BE DEAD THAN COOL” (potentially more text hidden), a mysterious tattoo on the shoulder, three black stripes, a tiger lily, and a skeleton hand giving the ‘rock on’/sign language ‘I love you’ sign, an eye, and “The most beautiful moment in life” in Chinese characters. 

Other tattoos on Jungkook’s hands include a heart, a crown, a face emoji, and the numbers “0613” on his thumb, which is said to represent the day BTS debuted (June 13, 2013). All things included, Jungkook could have as many as twelve tattoos! The unofficial sum of tattoos for BTS is thirteen, but until Jungkook confirms whether all are permanent ink and which ones he pairs together, it’s really all up in the air.