We just got a close-up look at Miley Cyrus’ new breakup tattoo

Miley Cyrus has debuted what appears to be a new tattoo inspired by her split with husband Liam Hemsworth.

The 26-year-old was seen sporting some new ink backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday, where she floored the crowd with an emotional performance of her new single Slide Away, which is reportedly inspired by her breakup.

During her jaw-dropping performance (with absolutely no lip-syncing, it deserves to be noted) and later backstage, fans spotted a new tattoo on the front of Miley’s left arm, on her bicep.

Miley has loads of tattoos all over her body – in fact many are tributes to her pets – but this new tatt features a few lines of text that could hint at her split from Liam.

The new tattoo is reportedly a lyric from the 1990 Pixies song The Thing and reads: “My head was feeling scared, but my heart was feeling free.”

Poignant, perhaps?

And on Thursday, LA-based tattoo artist Daniel Winter shared a close-up image of Miley’s tattoo on his Instagram account.

“@mileycyrus always great seeing you lady! Much love!” Daniel wrote on Instagram, alongside this gorgeous photo of Miley’s new ink.

The lyrics “My head was feeling scared, but my heart was feeling free” are now clearly visible in this photo.

Daniel also shared a cute photo of himself and Miley, with her fresh tattoo wrapped up in protective plastic.

And if you want solid proof that this tattoo is actually new, we’ve got the receipts!

Take a look at this photo Miley posted on August 12, when she was living it up on holidays overseas with her reported new flame, Kaitlynn Carter.

Her left bicep appears to be completely blank, suggesting this is a very new tattoo.

This is not the first time Miley has used song lyrics to send a message.

During her VMAs performance, she actually subtly altered some of the lyrics to her song Slide Away, which couldn’t have been more poignant given her recent split from Liam.

“Move on, we’re not 17, I’m not who I used to be. You say that everything changed. You’re right, we’re grown now,”the song usually goes.

But Miley might have amended the lyrics during her performance, instead choosing to end with the line: “You’re right, I’m grown now.”

Eep.

Since the couple’s breakup was announced earlier this month, Miley has been dodging cheating rumours.

She’s been posing up a storm with pal Kaitlynn and the pair were papped kissing while holidaying in Europe, plus Kaitlynn accompanied Miley backstage at the VMAs, with the pair choosing not to walk the official red carpet and pose for photos.

Last week, in a series of candid tweets, Miley took to Twitter to defend herself and deny that she had cheated on Liam with Kaitlynn.

“I can accept that the life I’ve chosen means I must live completely open and transparent with my fans who I love, and the public, 100 per cent of the time,” she wrote.

“What I cannot accept is being told I’m lying to cover up a crime I haven’t committed. I have nothing to hide.”

WATCH BELOW: Liam Hemsworth declares “I will always love Miley” in 2015 interview. Story continues after video.

The former Hannah Montana star then addressed the cheating rumours surrounding her and Liam’s relationship directly.

“I can admit to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of cheating,” she wrote.

“Liam and I have been together for a decade. I’ve said it before & it remains true, I love Liam and always will.”

Miley admitted that in the end, she had to “make a healthy decision for myself to leave a previous life behind”.

“I am the healthiest and happiest I have been in a long time. You can say I am a twerking, pot smoking , foul mouthed hillbilly but I am not a liar.”

The singer finished: “I am proud to say, I am simply in a different place from where i was when I was a younger.”