Woman’s Day can exclusively reveal Angelina and Brad’s incredible new tattoos – and the extremely personal spiritual meaning behind them.
Last month, while she was directing her movie First They Killed My Father in Cambodia, the couple had a secret session with Ajarn Noo Kanpai, the same famous Thai tattoo guru who inked her left shoulder blade in 2003 and the tiger on her lower back in 2004.
This time, the fresh etching on her right shoulder is a number of ancient Thai Buddhist symbols and mantras.
“The tattoos are composed of grids with pyramids at the top… they help to give the wearer protection and health,” a source tells us.
Woman’s Day found the image of Angelina’s new ink, on the centre and right of her shoulders, on social media.
The timing for her new designs are poignant for Angelina, who at just 40 has undergone a double mastectomy and also had her ovaries removed in a bid to fight the BRAC1 gene – an inherited mutation that claimed the life of her mother Marcheline Bertrand, along with a number of other family members.
“Angelina is a very spiritual person and has long believed her tattoos are more than just designs on her body – that they actually hold some meaning, power and influence over her,” the insider added.
Not to be outdone, her husband Brad, 52, had a Buddhist symbol tattooed onto the left side of his stomach, underneath a Bob Dylan lyric from his song When The Deal Goes Down that reads “We live, we die, we know not why, but I’ll be with you” – which is believed to have been traced from Angelina’s handwriting.
Brad’s Buddhist tattoo was done using the same ink as Ange’s.
In a touching tribute to the strength of their marriage – despite reports of marital discord in recent weeks – Woman’s Day understands Ajarn used the same ink for both Brad and Angelina’s tattoos.
Spiritually, this act binds husband and wife together.
Instead of the tattoo guns seen in Western culture, Brad and Ange’s artwork was done using the ancient hand-poked method, using a bamboo tube with a sterilised needle at the end.
Brad with Thai tattoo master Ajarn Noo Kanpai.
People come from around South East Asia and the world – actress Michelle Rodriguez is another of his celebrity clients – to work with Ajarn, who is widely believed to have magical powers.
But he won’t accept just anyone.
“I only work with people who are clean and moral,” he says.
Ajarn in his Bangkok studio, holding his traditional bamboo and steel tattooing implement. Picture: Karl Larsen/Coleman-Rayner
He tells us that his designs are only powerful “as long as the wearer properly conducts themselves.”
Of his work with Angelina and Brad, Ajarn says, “I don’t know if my work has helped Angelina in her life, but I hope so.”
“My tattoos have a great deal of spiritual meaning and significance, so I hope they have blessed her.”
Brad and Ange have numerous tattoos, mainly dedicated to their six children Maddox, 14, Pax, 12, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 9, and seven-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.
To read about reporter Andy Tillett’s first-hand experience of being inked by Angelina’s tattoo guru, click here.
