People act like a royal getting a tattoo is some shocking break with tradition. It isn’t. Royals have been getting inked for well over a century. The surprise is only there because we picture aristocracy as buttoned-up and proper, and the picture is wrong.
What’s actually changed is how visible it is. A small tattoo behind a princess’s ear used to stay hidden. Now it gets photographed at a Jubilee and lands in every tabloid by morning. That’s the real shift. Not that royals started getting tattoos, but that we started seeing them.
The ink has older roots than you’d think
Tattooing in Europe spent a long stretch tagged as fringe, sailor stuff, something done in port towns and circuses. But the early designs tell you what people actually wanted out of it. Between 1821 and 1920, most tattoos showed up on the arms, and the themes were naval scenes, religious symbols, and declarations of love, according to Revista Pesquisa Fapesp. People marked their voyages, their faith, and their sweethearts. Personal stories carried on skin.
That instinct never went away. The crests and family symbols some people choose today are doing the same job those naval tattoos did two hundred years ago. The reference points changed. The reason didn’t.
Royals have been doing this quietly for generations
The fascination with royal ink isn’t new, it’s just better documented now. Princess Eugenie was photographed with a small circular tattoo behind her ear during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, and the internet did what the internet does (AOL).
A single circle behind the ear isn’t a rebellion. It’s a personal mark, the same kind anyone gets. The only thing that makes it news is the tiara that usually sits above it. Strip away the title and it’s a normal tattoo, chosen for normal reasons. That’s worth remembering when the coverage tries to make it sound like the monarchy is coming apart at the seams.
The EU cleaned up what goes in the ink
In January 2022, the REACH Regulation took effect across the European Union, restricting thousands of hazardous chemicals in tattoo inks (Ken Research). Artists working in the EU now have to use inks that clear those limits.
Plenty of artists grumbled about it, and some pigments genuinely got harder to source. But the point of the rule is simple: what goes under the skin should be safe to leave there. That’s a fair ask. If you run a shop, knowing exactly what’s in your bottles and being able to tell a client why it’s safe is part of the job now, not an extra. A clean ink and a clean answer build trust faster than any portfolio.
The money tells you it’s mainstream
The numbers back up what anyone walking through a city center can already see. The global tattoo services market is projected to reach roughly $3.59 billion by the end of 2025, with Europe holding about a 30% share (BookedIn). Europe’s own tattoo market sits around $0.58 billion (Ken Research).
Big companies noticed too. In 2022, Société Bic bought the tattoo brand Inkbox for $65 million (Ken Research). When a pen company writes a check that size for body art, the “niche subculture” label is officially expired. Tattoos went mainstream years ago. The royals are just the most visible proof.
What a royal tattoo actually means
A crest or a circle on royalty carries a double weight that most tattoos don’t. It’s a personal choice, the same as anyone’s, but it also brushes up against centuries of lineage. A discreet mark can nod to a family history, an event, or simply a moment the wearer wanted to keep.
That’s the honest read. Not some grand statement about the monarchy reinventing itself, just a person choosing something to keep on their body, who happens to live in a palace. The symbolism people project onto it usually says more about the observer than the royal.
Queen Camilla and the superfan
Here’s the moment that sums it all up. At the Sandringham Flower Show in July 2025, Queen Camilla met a superfan covered in tattoos paying tribute to the monarchy. The story spread fast, helped along by the detail that even her own security guard had the royal cypher tattooed on him (The Irish News).
A royal guard with the crown inked on his skin. A fan wearing the same devotion. The Queen finding the whole thing funny rather than scandalous. That’s the temperature now. The stiffness people imagine around royalty and tattoos has mostly thawed, and these small public moments show it better than any market chart.
The takeaway for artists
If you’re an artist, there’s something useful buried in all this. The same instinct that put a naval scene on a sailor’s arm in 1880, or a small circle behind a princess’s ear in 2022, is the instinct that walks into your shop every day. People want to carry something that means something. Your job is to read that and make it last.
That hasn’t changed in two hundred years, and it won’t. The styles rotate, the regulations tighten, the famous names come and go. The reason people get tattooed stays exactly the same.
If you run a studio and want to spend less time chasing bookings and more time on the actual work, Apprentice handles the scheduling, deposits, and client messages so the art stays the focus. Start your free trial and see how it fits your shop.
Jason Howie
Founder & CEO
Jason Howie is the founder of Apprentice, passionate about empowering tattoo artists and shops with better tools to manage their business and serve their clients.
