Lord of the Rings stars get tattooed.

December 22, 2001 5:23 PM

Lord of the Rings stars get tattooed. "The nine stars who made up the fellowship in the blockbuster movie trilogy were tattooed with the same symbol by Wellington tattooist Roger Ingerton at his Roger's Tatooart studio. Sunday News can reveal the symbol is a number nine in Elvish - a language spoken in the films."

And no, that isn't a spelling mistake. They got inked by at a tattoo parlour that seems to be missing a 't' in the name.
posted by animoller (16 comments total)

Hmmm, I'm still deciding what my jaded view of this will be.
posted by fleener at 5:28 PM on December 22, 2001

Awww .... there are no pictures!
posted by Potsy at 5:30 PM on December 22, 2001

Church Lady: Well, isn't that special?
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:37 PM on December 22, 2001

Christopher Lee (Saruman) was branded with the Eye of Sauron.
posted by stbalbach at 5:38 PM on December 22, 2001

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that John Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli, refused to get one.
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:48 PM on December 22, 2001

The funny thing is that Eijah Woods appeared in the "pseudo informal interview that happens in back of a cab on HBO" and the same topic came up -- the tat. Seems his tat is right under his belt, in his Land of Mordor, if you catch my drift.

The interview just pretty much died as the interviewer kept clawing to see it -- metaphorically, not physically.
posted by nakedgremlin at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2001

What is sorta surprising is that they did this at the end of filming (before they really know what the movie was going to look like).

They weren't supposed to tell, though, at least that's what Ian Mckellen said.

I'm normally plenty jaded, but this movie got me.
posted by malphigian at 6:50 PM on December 22, 2001

Tee hee. Roger did mine too. I've been inked by the tattooist to the stars!

That's a misprint in the original article, though. In the phone book the business is listed as "Art by Roger", and a bit of Googling has him as "Roger's Tattooart", which is the older name. I've seen his photo albums, and he can spell. Imagine the disaster of the dyslexic tattooist... you'd end up with HEAT and VOLE on your knuckles.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:04 PM on December 22, 2001

I left Wellington only a couple of months ago, and there was definitely a big sign out the front on Cuba that said "TATOOART". As a person with a tattoo, it is something that I will not forget easily! Laser surgery is still pretty expensive...
posted by animoller at 8:39 PM on December 22, 2001

you'd end up with HEAT and VOLE on your knuckles

[cheerleader post]
I love this idea.
[/cheerleader post]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:11 PM on December 22, 2001

Sunday News can reveal the symbol is a number nine in Elvish - a language spoken in the films.

Sunday News didn't reveal anything that Elijah Wood didn't reveal on the Letterman show about a week and a half ago. That was the first time I'd heard about the 9 part, but the tattoos themselves are very old news. Apparently Orlando Bloom, who plays Legolas, revealed in November that he'd had the 9 done, although he didn't mention that the other cast members had done the same.

Revealed: a look at an actual Fellowship tattoo (on the ankle of Sean Astin), from a post in early November.

Fine job of revealing, Sunday News. You really ripped the cover off that one.
posted by diddlegnome at 1:34 AM on December 23, 2001

elijah wood told that story in ~exact same words to every interview, the face (mag) i think, and dave letterman were my primary sources; and according to information in this discussion, he's told it many more times. it was disappointing that that's all is all.
it's corny as hell; if the films weren't such a massive production would they go in for the tats? but it's kind of sweet and fluffy, too... i'd never dis elijah, we have the same birthday.
posted by elle at 1:59 AM on December 23, 2001

Laser surgery is still pretty expensive...


Not when you're being paid what these actors are being paid. I wonder how much of a bender they were on before they ended up in that tattoo parlor.
posted by skallas at 2:11 AM on December 23, 2001

> And no, that isn't a spelling mistake. They got inked by
> at a tattoo parlour that seems to be missing a 't' in the
> name.

What, TatooTart?
posted by kerplunk at 2:45 AM on December 23, 2001

Elijah Wood did the same coy references to the tattoo on Comedy Central's THE DAILY SHOW. In fact, I think he made a move to show it, but John Stewart (the host) stopped him.
posted by crunchland at 6:36 AM on December 23, 2001

Elijah Wood did the same coy references to the tattoo on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show

“Comedy Central’s The Daily Show”? You write like a talk-show host. The revelation didn’t seem coy to me, and anyway, the punchline was Jon Stewart’s exclaiming, in apparently true incredulity, “You got a tattoo with Ian McKellen?”
posted by joeclark at 5:59 PM on December 23, 2001