Nadine’s lotus flower tattoo — symbolizing her journey to finding herself — Cosmo PH

Before we dive into the ink-stained story of one of the Philippines’ most celebrated actresses, let us settle the question head-on: Yes, Nadine Lustre has tattoos — and not just one or two. As of the last confirmed count in early 2022, she has approximately 15 tattoos on her body, ranging from whisper-small minimalist pieces tucked on her fingers and wrists to her most striking piece yet: a fierce, serpentine dragon that crawls from her right shoulder blade all the way down her arm. In 2025, she revealed she has since had some of the thicker ones removed via laser — but the meaningful ones remain. More on that later.

For someone who has spent her entire adult life in the public eye — first as one half of the beloved JaDine love team, then as a critically acclaimed solo actress and singer — Nadine’s tattoos are more than mere decoration. They are, in her own words, “indelible notes to herself.” And honestly? They are also a masterclass in personal style. If you have ever admired how Nadine carries herself — bare arms adorned with ink, paired with minimalist gold earrings and nothing more — you already know that her aesthetic is as intentional as her storytelling.

Why Do Celebrities Get Tattoos?

In the age of social media, celebrity tattoos are never just personal — they are statements. But strip away the public gaze, and the reasons celebrities choose to get inked are surprisingly human: grief, love, identity, survival.

Some celebrities tattoo as an act of reclamation. When a person’s body is constantly commodified — photographed, critiqued, rated, compared — permanently marking that body on one’s own terms becomes a radical assertion of ownership. Others get tattooed to commemorate relationships or losses too enormous for words. A name. A lyric. A date. Still others use ink to anchor an identity that fame, with all its shapeshifting demands, threatens to dissolve. In a world where celebrity can feel like wearing a costume 24 hours a day, a tattoo is something that doesn’t come off when the cameras stop rolling.

There is also the community dimension — matching tattoos with close friends signal belonging, loyalty, and love outside the transactional world of showbiz. Many celebrities who get these pieces describe them as the most meaningful ink they own, not because of their artistry, but because of what they represent: chosen family. Nadine is no exception — she has matching sparkle tattoos with BFFs Lauren Reid, Andrea Luis, and Kiana Valenciano, and a “nobrigado” friendship tattoo from a Brazil trip.

Nadine’s Tattoos: A Map of Her Interior World

What makes the Nadine Lustre tattoo collection remarkable is how deliberately personal it is. None of her ink appears chosen for aesthetic trend or shock value. Each piece maps a specific emotional territory. She has said: “My tattoos are a form of art. People get tattoos for memories. It’s for remembrance. Yong mga tattoos ko, meron siyang ibig-sabihin sa akin talaga.”

Nadine breaking down the meanings of her tattoos — Preview PH

“That’s It” & “It Is What It Is” — leg tattoos by 55 Tinta Studio (2021) — PhilSTAR Life

“I see tattoos as a work of art. It’s the story of a person.” — Nadine Lustre

What Do Her Tattoos Say About Her Life?

Taken together, Nadine’s tattoo collection tells the story of a woman who has fought hard to know herself — and harder still to love herself. The rose on her wrist arrived during a time she admitted she was “struggling a little” with self-love. It is worth pausing on that. She was, at that point, already a household name — a constant presence on magazine covers and billboards, with a ring light perennially pointed her way. And yet she was quietly battling the very thing fame rarely allows: basic self-acceptance. The rose was her private remedy.

The moon and the “Tadhana” lyrics came from devastating grief — the loss of her younger brother Isaiah in 2019, a tragedy that publicly shook her and, by her own account, permanently reshaped her sense of what matters. In the months that followed, Nadine was seen embracing stillness: long days in Siargao, a candle-lit slowness to her public presence, and a raw honesty in interviews that her fans had not quite seen before. Grief changed her. The ink made it permanent.

The “It Is What It Is” leg tattoo, inked in 2021 in the aftermath of her breakup with James Reid, is perhaps the most emotionally loaded piece in the collection. It is not angry, not bitter, not dramatic. It is the ink of someone choosing peace over protest — a woman deciding to release what she cannot change. If you have ever sat quietly with your thoughts and reached for a self-help book or a journal to process a painful chapter, you already understand the impulse behind that tattoo.

And then there is the dragon. Unveiled in January 2022, it sparked immediate speculation among fans — some even connecting it to her ex. Nadine clapped back firmly: the tattoo was for herself. The dragon in Eastern tradition symbolizes strength, wisdom, and transformation. That she chose this at the precise moment her solo identity was fully crystallizing feels entirely deliberate. She was not making a statement about anyone else. She was declaring herself.

The Tattoos and the Nadine of Today

The Nadine Lustre of 2025–2026 is arguably the most complete version of herself the public has ever seen. She has become a seven-time Best Actress awardee, starred in internationally distributed films like Nokturno (on Amazon Prime Video) and the blockbuster holiday film Call Me Mother, which grossed ₱392 million at the 2025 Metro Manila Film Festival. She runs her own plant-based milk line, a wine brand, and launched an eyewear collection called “9Lives” — a name that, given everything she has been through, feels like her own private tattoo in brand form.

In a revealing update in late 2025, Nadine disclosed she had undergone laser tattoo removal at the Aivee Clinic — choosing to erase the thicker, older ones she has outgrown, while keeping the thin, meaningful ones intact. “I’m just super happy that there’s a way to remove them,” she said. “But definitely, I’m gonna get more — and I’ll make sure they look like this,” she added, pointing to her lotus. Even in removal, she is intentional. That is very Nadine.

Laser tattoo removal — Nadine chose to remove her thicker, older tattoos while keeping the meaningful ones — Cosmo PH

She has spoken about feeling more grounded than ever — bouncing between Manila and Siargao, choosing projects that challenge her, and winding down her evenings with the kind of quiet that you fill with good music on her wireless earbuds, a pashmina thrown over her shoulders, and the ocean not far away. Read that against her vine tattoo — the one she got to remind herself to stay rooted — and the continuity is striking. She also stays physically active, something fans often notice in her toned arms that show off her ink so naturally; a good set of dumbbells at home has that effect.

Each tattoo on Nadine Lustre’s skin is a timestamp of survival. The grief, the heartbreak, the identity questions, the creative hunger — all of it is there, quietly permanent, visible only when she chooses to show her arms, her wrists, her legs. For someone who has lived so much of her life in public, that feels like a deliberate and beautiful act of privacy: her truest story, told only in ink.

Photo credits & sources: Lotus tattoo — Cosmopolitan Philippines; Tattoo meanings — Preview Philippines; Leg tattoos — PhilSTAR Life; Tattoo removal — Cosmo PH (Oct 2025).