Tattoos often play a part in marking important experiences in our lives. The cast of the Lord of the Rings spent the better part of a year and a half in New Zealand working on the film trilogy. Towards the end of the shoot, the actors playing the Fellowship decided to commemorate the making of the movies by getting tattooed. The chosen design was a word in flowing Elvish script symbolizing the number nine. One of the film’s calligraphers drew a few versions and the final one was selected by the actors. The tattoos were done by Wellington tattooist Roger Ingerton.

Elijah Wood and Sir Ian McKellan were not only the youngest and oldest members of the group respectively, but neither had ever been tattooed before, and supposedly held each other’s hands during the process. Elijah has repeatedly remarked he found the experience to be very painful. Some of that may be due to his choice to have the design placed on his right front hipbone. McKellan’s tattoo is on his right upper arm and his frequent comment is “it looks like it says 'gucci'" from his upside down viewpoint. (photo of Sir Ian McKellan: Emma Abraham)

John Rhys-Davies was the only Fellowship actor who didn’t actually get tattooed. He has said he chose not to for personal reasons. He did however send along his stunt double, martial artist Brett Beattie. The scale Gimli kept the Fellowship intact and, in fact, dressed and made up identically as John, Beattie spent more film hours on location performing as the Dwarf.

See Sean Bean's, Orlando Bloom's and Dominic Monaghan's tattoos with the Fellowship Tattoo Continues!


For more on THE LORD OF THE RINGS, you might enjoy the books listed below.
The visual companion books are the ones to get if you are after character pictures.