Tattoos often play a part in marking important experiences in our lives. The cast of the Lord of the Rings spent the better part of a year and a half in New Zealand working on the film trilogy. Towards the end of the shoot, the actors playing the Fellowship decided to commemorate the making of the movies by getting tattooed. The chosen design was a word in flowing Elvish script symbolizing the number nine. One of the film’s calligrapher’s drew a few versions and the final one was selected by the actors. The tattoos were done by Wellington tattooist Roger Ingerton.

Elijah Wood and Sir Ian McKellan were not only the youngest and oldest members of the group respectively, but neither had ever been tattooed before, and supposedly held each other’s hands during the process. Elijah has repeatedly remarked he found the experience to be very painful. Some of that may be due to his choice to have the design placed on his right front hipbone. McKellan’s tattoo is on his right upper arm and his frequent comment is “it looks like it says ‘gucci’ from his viewpoint upside down. If you saw him perform in the play “Dance of Death” when it ran in London, you would have seen it when he took off his shirt.

Sean Astin and Billy Boyd both had their tattoos placed on their ankles. They felt this was significant to their experiences as hobbits and all the time spent in “Feet,” the two hours process by which the faux hairy feet were glued over their own every morning. Both men have remarked in interviews that they inadvertently added to their own discomfort in that they were still making the movie when they got tattooed and then had to have hobbit feet glued onto their healing ankles.

Dominic Monaghan and Orlando Bloom both choose to have their tattoos on their main fighting arms. Dominic’s is on the shoulder of his sword arm. Bloom, who portrays Elf archer Legolas, has his tattoo placed on his right forearm. Orlando had a tattoo prior to his Fellowship tat: a tribal sun design below his navel.

The Men of the Fellowship also had tattoos prior to this commemorative one. Viggo Mortensen has a few tattoos, most notably a design that combines the initials of himself, his ex-wife Exene Cervenka and their son Henry. Only recently has he revealed that his Elvish nine is on one of his shoulders. It made sense for Sean Bean to place his Fellowship tattoo on his right arm like some of the other’s, especially since his left upper arm sports his famous “100% Blade” tattoo in support of his beloved Sheffield United Football Club. Bean had already finished filming and left New Zealand when the tattoo idea arose and he got his ink in New York City, accompanied by Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood.

John Rhys-Davies didn’t actually get tattooed. He has said he choose not to for personal reasons. However to keep the Fellowship intact, he sent along his stunt double, martial artist Brett Beattie. Rhys-Davies felt the scale Gimli kept the Fellowship intact and, in fact, dressed and made up identically as John, Beattie had performed more film hours as the Dwarf.

elijah wood's tattoo

sir ian mckellan