The global impact that 'The Lord of The Rings' had is undeniable. The saga raked in over 3 billion dollars as well as winning 17 Oscars. It has been 13 years since the last film of the trilogy, but it hasn't only made its mark on fans forever, it's also made a permanent mark on some of the cast reminding them of their time on Middle Earth.
Orlando Bloom took to Instagram to share an old photo, reminiscing the moment when him and the a large number of the cast got matching tattoos to celebrate the end of filming. Accompanying Bloom to the tattoo parlour was Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood,Dominic Monaghan,Sean Bean, Billy Boyd and Sean Astin. The tattoo that they got was the number nine written in the language created by author J.R.R Tolkien, Tengwar.
It's slightly strange because despite the tattoo being a number nine, only eight had it done as John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli, decided not to get the tattoo. In his place, his stunt double got it done instead. The actor jokingly said "I did what any self-respecting actor would do when faced with a stunt that might very well imperil his life. I sent my stunt double to have it. Seems fair to me, doesn't it?".
The actors got the tattoos in 2001, once they had finished filming 'The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring' in the UK. During the premiere which took place in Leicester Square, Elijah Wood (Frodo) said "We felt the experience was both wonderful enough and profound enough to have ourselves branded, so we went ahead and did that about a week before we finished".
Dominic Monaghan admitted that before the idea arose about getting the number nine in elvish, he considered getting a tattoo of the one ring or the word 'fellowship'. "It was one of those beautiful moments, where we all felt like we had been through this war, this battle, together in a lot of different ways," Monaghan explained. "That really brought together that family feeling."
The director of the trilogy, Peter Jackson stayed on the sideline for a while, however he soon caved in and ended up getting a tattoo as well. He decided to get a number ten in elvish.
However, 'The Lord of The Rings' team aren't the only ones to play the tattoo game. Films that are somewhat of a super-production or films that have been going on for a long period, they often tend to bring the actors closer together and as a result they feel the need to show the importance of their friendships. One example is the Stark sisters in 'Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams got a tattoo of the date when they met each other, '07.08.09'.
Another well known story is that one night when the cast of 'Suicide Squad' got drunk, they decided to whip out a tattoo gun and give each other matching tattoos saying 'SKWAD'. Director David Ayer shared a picture on Twitter of the moment. Whilst tattooing Jai Courtney's assistant, Simon,Margot Robbie made a mistake as she wrote 'SWAD' instead of 'SKWAD'.
Other well known instances of actors and casts getting tattoos include the series 'Breaking Bad' where both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul decided to get tattoos. Cranston got the logo of the series on one of his fingers, and Paul opted for the name of one of the episodes called 'No Half Measures'. Cranston explained "it was appropriate. 'Breaking Bad' changed my life". The protagonists of Glee also decided to get inked as some chose the word 'Imagine' to be tattooed on them whilst others opted for a small star. Finally, during the filming of 'Mad Max: Fury Road' many great friendships were formed and the girls in the film such as Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Courtney Eaton, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Riley Keough all got tattoos.