Thread by @thezarrygallery

harry styles and zayn malik’s individual and matching tattoos & the significance to their friendship, lives and careers — a complete timeline! 🖤

In 2011, Zayn got his first tattoo, his grandather’s name in Arabic, as soon as he turned 18. The very first day Harry turned 18, he got one, as well; it was an outline of a star. They were the first and only band members with tattoos until late 2012.

In 2011, Zayn got a Chinese symbol on his stomach, which he shortly covered with a solid black heart tattoo 🖤

Zayn revealed the two of them tattooed screws onto each other in a hotel room while they were in New York (2012)— presumably in March while the band was there.

Zarry were the only ones to have the screw tattoos until Louis and Liam joined afterwards.

In March 2012, Harry asks a fan to tell Zayn that he’s a “Friday” at a fan signing…

A few months later in September, Zayn gets it tattooed and Harry helps him show it off.

It is believed that Harry wrote the tattoo as the lettering matches known samples of his handwriting. Zayn also spray painted “Friday” on the wall for 1D Day. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In June 2012, Harry and Zayn get tattoos together at Kat Von D’s shop. Zayn gets a microphone and Harry gets the lyrics “won’t stop till we surrender” from the song Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap.

Harry tweeted some of the lyrics a few months prior. The song is about the reckless abandon of youth. The original lyrics are “won’t stop to surrender” but Harry got them as “won’t stop till we surrender” instead.

During the Up All Night Tour, Harry would playfully mimic Zayn’s microphone and crossed fingers tattoos. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In July 2012, they revealed that Zayn drew and (most likely) tattooed Harry’s “A” tattoo, which is for his mom, Anne.

While face-timing a fan in 2016, Harry said the A was his favorite tattoo.

Harry got a Green Bay Packers tattoo in September 2012 after he lost a bet. He’s a massive Packers fan and wears their merch all the time. Zayn has actually worn their merch too: a few days after he left the band. This was the first and last time he ever wore it.

In September 2012, Harry got his sister, Gemma’s, name on his shoulder in Hebrew. Later on, Zayn got his sisters names on his arm in Arabic.

Additionally, Harry got a cursive “A” for Anne and “G” for Gemma on his shoulders. Years later, Zayn got a “T” for Trisha behind his ear.

Continuing the theme of familial tattoos, Harry has Anne and Robin’s birth years above his collarbone and Zayn has his father’s name, Yaser, behind his ear.

Harry got the lyrics “Never Gonna, Dance Again” from the song Careless Whisper done by his friend Tom Atkin (2012). Both Harry & Zayn have tattooed Tom in the past.

Sidenote: Zayn has the lyrics “the cage I was in fell away when she asked me to dance again” in his song Bright.

In summer 2012, Harry got his “I Can’t Change” tattoo on his left hand. In October, Harry got many tattoos, including “Things I Can” and “Things I Can’t” on his right and left arm, respectively. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

At the same time on October 17, 2012, Harry appeared with his “Can I stay” tattoo, which is the name of a song by Ray Lamontagne.

“Can I Stay” is about not wanting someone to leave you, loving them and wishing you could be with them. It is reminiscent of Harry’s song “Already Home.”— you don’t have to go, cause you’re already home.

“Can I stay here with you till the morning, I’ve fallen sad inside and I need a place to hide...between your blissful kisses, whisper darling is this love?”

Harry has tweeted about Ray’s songs multiple times before, including “Hannah” in 2010 and “Burn” in 2013 and 2014. The first time being praise for the song and the second time being lyrics that he quickly deleted.

Burn is about the jealousy and anguish that comes with seeing someone you love be with someone else. Around this time in 2013, Harry wrote songs with the same theme, such as “Happily” (written May, 2013) and “Just A Little Bit of Your Heart” (written August, 2013).

“Just try to ignore this blood on the floor, it’s just this heart on my sleeve that’s bleeding — Yes, but to see you now with him is just making me mad. So kiss him again, just to prove to me that you can. And I will stand here and burn in my skin.”

On October 17th, Harry got a solid black heart tattoo on his sleeve, which matches Zayn’s heart tattoo on his stomach.

In 2011, Harry would draw a black heart on his sleeve. The band’s makeup artist, Lou Teasdale, had the same tattoo, which was a matching couple tattoo with her ex boyfriend, Tom Atkin. Lou’s name can also be seen on his stomach. Zarry’s tattoos were likely inspired by theirs.

When speaking to a fan, Tom said that Lou got the tattoo first and he, Zayn and Harry then followed afterwards.

Harry also posted this picture of two people with matching couple heart tattoos on October 17th captioned “Siiiicckkk.”

🖤💋

Zayn got a yin and yang tattoo in 2011 and consistently wore jewelry of it. It represents duality and opposing yet complementary energies that rely on each other.

yin: dark, moon, feminine
yang: light, sun, masculine

On September 7th, 2017, Zayn released his song Dusk till Dawn, which features two protagonists with matching yin and yang tattoos in its music video. The Bonnie and Clyde-esque video portrays two lovers on the run.

Harry got Pink Floyd’s iconic prism tattooed in October 2012. A few months later in April 2013, Zayn got the same prism tattoo.

Harry is a massive fan of the band and even included one of their songs, Breathe, on his 2016 mixtape — “leave but don’t leave me.”

Harry wearing a Pink Floyd shirt a few days later when he drove Zayn to the studio on October 19th 🌈

Harry gets the phrase “might as well…” tattooed onto his stomach and is first seen with it in the Kiss You music video, which was filmed in late October. Zayn gets a “don’t think i won’t…” tattoo in the same place and the same style on December 5th.

Zayn gets the tattoo done in a NYC hotel with two individuals who resemble Lou (on the sofa) and Harry (standing in the corner) in the room.

The following paparazzi photos were taken that same day. As you can see, Zayn is wearing the same hat that’s in that picture and Harry has similar pants and a similar object in his pocket as the individual in the corner.

Furthermore, the writing of the tattoo resembles Harry’s own writing as seen in this sketch Harry did from one of his writing sessions with Kodaline.

“Don’t Think I Won’t” is also the title of a song by the artist Mark Will’s — “But if you need someone to walk through fire for you, I'm just the man to do it, don't think I won't.”

In November 2012, Zayn gets a tattoo of a bandana on his arm. Zayn has sported bandanas around his neck as has Harry. Also, Zayn was the person who gave Harry his first ever bandana in July 2013, which then shortly kickstarted Harry’s bandana era. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Harry got a “Love” banner on his chest, which is seen in the Kiss You music video. Zayn got “Love” tattooed onto his hand in 2015.

Harry covered the banner with two sparrows on November 18th. Both him and Zayn had symmetrical chest pieces as Zayn got wings on his chest in 2013.

Harry then showed his sparrow and heart tattoos to Zayn. 🖤 (previous post should say November 8th)

Zayn was actually the first to get a bird tattoo, a fantail from New Zealand to be exact, in 2012. He later got a sparrow on his hand.

Both Harry and Zayn share a love of birds!

Zayn gets an MSG tattoo to commemorate their show there and Harry speaks about the tattoo. MSG was extremely special to the band and them individually as Harry chose a picture of them hugging from MSG to post on the 10th anniversary of 1D. The hug contains a Zarry moment. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Harry is very well acquainted with Zayn’s tattoos as seen in this clip where he helps to count Zayn’s tattoos.

In May 2013, Zayn gets a wolf tattooed onto his leg. In June, Harry tells a fan he wants to get a tattoo of a wolf on his face.

Harry got a tattoo that says “17Black” under his collarbone in 2012. The tattoo artist revealed he got it because he lost money gambling on 17Black in Australia.

However, there is also a series of books by Richard Rider, which includes “Stockholm Syndrome” (also the name of a song written by Harry) and the sequel “17 black and 29 red.” The series details a story between two men, one of whom is from Bradford. — book summary below.

In 2013, Zayn got a skull with a hat on his shoulder and Harry got a skull with a hat on a playing card on his arm.

On July 1st, 2013, Harry got a cross tattoo on his hand. Harry has worn cross necklaces consistently for years up until today. He even wore a cross earring with a heart on it. In the Fine Line era, he wore one green and one gold cross necklace together. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Zayn wore crosses in the early days of the band and stopped wearing them until his Vibez music video where he sported a cross necklace and Chrome Hearts pants with crosses on them. In the Fine Line era, Harry wore a Chrome Hearts ring with crosses on either side.

In February 2014, Harry added another heart onto his sleeve: an anatomical heart.

In 2015, Zayn got an eye tattoo with the prism striking into it and lips with smoke coming out of them on his hands.

In late 2013, Zayn got a large tiger tattoo on his arm. Then, sometime in 2015 after Zayn left, Harry got a tiger tattoo on his thigh.

On September 25, 2016, Zayn posted his Highsnobiety cover where he wore a Gucci jacket that contained some of his and Harry’s tattoos, including butterflies, flowers, two birds and a tiger.

In 2018, Zayn got sunflowers tattooed on his neck and a wing coming out of it. Zayn also has multiple 6’s tattooed on him. Interestingly, Harry has a song called Sunflower Vol. 6.

Roses 🌹

Harry got his rose tattoo on September 9, 2013 after posting this picture of a metal box spray painted with a heart and captioned “Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt,” which is an album by Augustana. Zayn posted the same metal box on April 20, 2016 with a spray painted man.

These are song lyrics from Augustana’s song “Rest, Shame, Love” on the album, which feature the title. The song, as well as the whole album, is centered around anti-marriage sentiments. — “It's the wrong dream, with the wrong man…if you can’t love babe, then you can’t hurt.”

A few days later on September 29th, Harry tweeted “we don’t need no piece of paper from the city hall” from “My Old Man” on Joni Mitchell’s Blue. The lyrics once again are anti-marriage.

In November 2016, Zayn is pictured with a rose ring from Great Frog in his ES photoshoot. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In March 2017, Harry is first seen with a rose ring also from Great Frog. This becomes a staple ring for his debut era and he wears it at every one of his shows except for Washington DC, which was the day after the MSG show where he performs Still the One.

Zayn got a rose tattoo on his skull in March, 2018. He also posted this picture of himself with a massive rose.

The lotus 🪷

In 2015 after he left the band, Zayn gets a finish line and a lotus tattoo on his arm (in the same place as Harry’s rose). He also posted this picture of a lotus on a piano. Lastly, in 2018 he added a mandala lotus to his skull next to the rose.

In 2017, Harry releases his debut album, which features him bathing in pink waters wearing a lotus necklace. A lotus symbolizes purity and rebirth.

In 2018, Zayn released his music video for Satisfaction, which was written in 2015, that features a bird flying out of a lotus flower that blossoms on a man’s chest.

The Satisfaction music video, which was filmed in Jamaica in 2016, also features this quote: “until the flower of this love has blossomed, this heart won’t be at peace” from his song “Intermission: Flower” on Mind of Mine.

Zayn gets his age, 25, tattooed on his neck in March, 2018 with the 2 in red ink and the 5 in black ink emphasizing 2 out of 5. The number is significant to Zayn as he both left 1D and released his debut album on this date. Harry started his debut era on March 25th, too.

2/5 🖤

In May of 2019, Zayn posted Khalil Gibran’s poem “On Love and Marriage” and later that year he got the entire poem tattooed on his arm.

Zayn is seen with a tattoo of Jean- Michel Basquiat’s famous crown in his Better music video (2020). Harry is a massive Basquiat fan, too; he has named him as an individual that inspires him and bought his artwork in 2014. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

In around 2019, Harry appears with the knee tattoos “Oui” and “Non” (French) & “Si” and “No” (Spanish). They translate to yes (on the right side of his body) and no (on the left side of his body.) In 2021, Zayn gets the jaw tattoos “C'est la vie” (French) and “De Nada” (Spanish)

Note: Harry has seemingly divided his body up according to his tattoos. He got the “Things I Can’t,” “I Can’t Change” and No tattoos on the left side of his body. Almost all his other tattoos are on this side. The “Things I Can” and Yes tattoos are on the right side of his body.

End of thread 💟

Correction: the birth year is Des’ not Robin’s.