Justin Bieber has a new tattoo. A knight in shining armor.
The illustrated teen’s new body art was captured by paps when he attended the New York City premiere of After Earth this past week to support his friends Will and Jaden Smith.
Granted it’s not news compared to say, an alleged reckless driving accusation from an ex-NFL mountain man , underage clubbing which actually isn’t illegal if the club has a license for minors, or an imminent assault on the House of Bieber by a posse of pitchfork-wielding Calabasas neighbors — but it is interesting seen in the context of the singer’s present troubles.
Sited on the Canadian’s inner left arm, the knight nestles just below a “Believe” inking the singer received in June 2012 to mark the release of his same name album and brings his tat count to 16.
These include three designs — a Koi carp meaning love and friendship in many interpretations , a tiger, and an angel many believe resemble and/or represents on-off girlfriend Selena Gomez — that appeared on Bieber’s left arm at around the same time the Spring Breakers actress visited him on tour in Europe.
A declared Christian, the star also has numerous versions of word “Jesus” along with related images, a crown, and owl, his mother Pattie Mallette’s birth date in Roman numerals, an Indian head logo of a Canadian junior ice hockey team and a seagull inked on his body.
Each tattoo seemingly either means something or marks a significant event for the singer. So what could an armored knight symbolize for Bieber right now?
Currently the subject of two police investigations, the most recent for alleged reckless driving and the other for alleged battery, these are serious times for the singer. A TMZ video featuring former-NFL star Keyshawn Johnson, one of two witnesses claiming to have seen Bieber speeding his Ferrari through their Calabasas, Los Angeles neighborhood on Memorial Day recently upped the ante.
Odd Future rapper Tyler, The Creator — also known as Tyler Gregory Okonma — has since publicly accepted responsibility for driving , but the media frenzy over the incident will continue while the investigation proceeds.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County District Office prosecutors are mulling whether to charge Bieber for battery in relation to a claim by another neighbor that the singer spit on and threatened to kill him during a heated March argument over the teen’s alleged reckless driving.
All of this plays out against a backdrop of three months of resolutely bad press generated by the singer’s Believe world tour. While much of the reporting was inflated, there were some undeniably concerning moments on the tour — and off it.
These include , a still unsatisfactorily explained (and Bieber disputed) two hour late show start at London’s 02 Arena in March, the seizing of the singer’s former pet monkey in Munich, persistent public shirtlessness, a tour bus drug bust in Stockholm, a run-in with a Brit paparazzo, speeding fines and an unwelcome stage hug in Dubai, Billboard boos… It goes on.
Bieber’s recent positioning in the press as the new ‘moving target on the block’ is in stark contrast to his early bright eyed Internet fame appeal in 2007-8 and the real world acclaim that followed the late 2009 debut of his My World album .
Nearly five years, numerous industry awards , relentless touring and millions of record sales later, superstardom has also brought the Stratford, Ontario native parasitic paparazzi attention and constant media deconstruction. Pictures of the Canadian wearing a hunted expression on his face are hardly surprising.
Given his declared Christian beliefs, a deeper inspiration for the knight tattoo may have more to do with the Arthurian legend and the Knights of the Round Table than Hollywood Life’s exclusive about Bieber apparently “working hard to be a gentleman” to Gomez vis-à-vis the chivalrous knight in shining armor .
Lancelot, Percivale, Gawain, Galahad and more (the number ranges from 12 to 150 in different stories), were the strongest and most honorable warriors in the land. But what bound the knights to King Arthur was an allegiance to God and their quest to find the Holy Grail, the fabled vessel that captured Christ’s blood on the cross — other interpretations believe it was the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper — and became interwoven with Holy Chalice legends.
It’s a lofty conceit and may well be one that’s beyond who and where Bieber is. And, maybe not.
Perhaps the same 19-year-old who instagrammed a shadowed image of himself tagged with the caption “My vision is enormous” and surprised 600 children at an Elementary last month with food packages and a pledge to stock the school’s kitchen for a year, is capable of wanting to tap into an enduring allegory about honor and heroism at an unprecedentedly, embattled period of his life with something as simple as a knight tattoo.