A Fashion Psychoanalysis of Brooklyn Beckham's Many Tattoos
by Zarinah WilliamsFeb 09, 2026
If fashion is an extension of ourselves, then doesn't it stand to reason that clothes and accessories and trend cycles tell us more than we give them credit for? Welcome to Fashion Psychoanalysis, PAPER's exploration into the hearts and minds of the people in this world — as told by what you're all wearing!
My first thought after Brooklyn Beckham dropped that bombshell? “What the hell is he going to do about all those tattoos?” Forget the drama!
His recent six-part Instagram story painted his parents, fashion and sports icons David and Victoria Beckham, as performative, image-obsessed parents from hell, who’ll pressure, bribe, sabotage and even turn on their eldest son in a quest to maintain the charade of the perfect family. Parents whose warped definition of love was measured by “how much you post social media, or how quickly you drop everything to show up and pose for a family photo op even if it's at the expense of our professional obligations.”
If cloyingly sweet displays of family loyalty were the expectation, then surely tattooing dozens of permanent dedications to the family brand must’ve been earning Brooklyn extra points. So, how exactly do you make a permanent exit from the family you’ve become a walking billboard for?
For years, Brooklyn’s been living in the kind of nepo-baby "upside down” that promotes him to professional on his first attempt. A modeling “debut” at 15 that came with a cover and 20-page editorial. A basic ass fried egg sandwich (on white bread!) that landed him a chef segment on Today. A publishing deal as a hobbyist teenage photographer and a Christie’s London exhibition of works that’d be mostly considered unremarkable, had they not featured his famous family as subjects. Fed up as Brooklyn is about his parent’s antics and image control, he still hasn’t successfully traced a path of self awareness back to the creation of his own celebrity, or the confidence machine pumping out fake demand and fake acclaim for his very real ambitions.
The same machine has also been fueling his self-proclaimed tattoo addiction. The result? Over 100 tattoos in less than eight years. Ironically, it’s become the only hobby permanent enough to survive through his various identity crises in favor of tributes to others, making him a well designed shell, and an ad for everything except Brooklyn.
The largest and most obvious is his dedication to his now estranged father, the man who introduced and inspired Brooklyn’s tattoo journey. A journey that wasn’t just an opportunity to bond with his dad, but, in lieu of building his own successful football career, the next best way for Brooklyn to become his father. Copycat tats, Gothic crosses, Renaissance cherubs floating in the Heavens, Roman numerals, statements and stamps in elaborate scripts, all done in black-and-gray joint style, all just like his father.
On each arm, there’s nautical anchors and cupid hearts with banners dedicated to “Dad” and “Mum” respectively. Nicknames, birthdates, initials, and dedications to his brothers — who have him blocked on social media — and little sister, split mostly evenly and hidden between the generic eagles, cameras, and Indian chiefs you’d find in parlor binders and displays.
Overall, Brooklyn’s work mirrors the current trends of his generation, who prioritize sentiment over style and prefer a scattered collection of small, cryptic, sticker-style tattoos over the giant sleeves and pieces of yesteryear. Most seemingly choose to skip ornate detail, intense sketching and planning, recurring sessions, and even color altogether in favor of cheap and easy ink. Collections built in small doses, and for most people who are not married to billionaire heiresses, built only as fast as they could afford to.
The long brewing Beckham feud, which reportedly survived out of the public eye for the last five years, hasn’t quite compelled Brooklyn to explore other dedications of love that don’t require needles, ink, and his skin. Like, building rose gardens, dedicating park benches, commissioning bronze statues, or whatever rich people did before Instagram and tattoo shops.
Instead of reflecting and healing the people pleasing and the tattoo addiction, its roots or the dopamine chasing, Brooklyn made a quick pivot to his in-laws, the Peltz clan.
There’s the large “Peltz” scrawled across his torso, dedications to his dearly departed grandmother-in-law, and dozens of other “gifts” to wife Nicola now sitting in real estate previously claimed for the Beckhams. “Mama’s Boy” over his heart is now mostly hidden behind new peony stems for his bride. Last checked, the Peltz tattoo count was up to 70.
The large “BECKHAM” stamped in a brawny Old English font across his stomach now competes with an equally large “Peltz" floating above it in a romantic, calligraphy-style script with feather light shading. Romance, then, may be the most noticeable shift for this Peltz era. Brooklyn’s obsession with handwriting recreations, scripts, stamps, and typewriter-style text is still very much here, though there’s now a clear rise in “sweet things” — wedding vows, handwritten notes, words “lover” and “married” and “baby,” the “beautiful girl” stamped above Nicola’s name on his hand, the “N” on his ring finger adorned with a heart. It goes on, and on, and on. Nicola makes a little bit of history, becoming the first person out of all the Beckhams, to have not one, but two, portraits dedicated to her.
So, Brooklyn, what if we stop for like, five years? A family estranged, a marriage statistically as likely to survive as it is to end, and what then, a repeat of this cycle for the next future love you need to prove your dedication to with copious amounts of trendy ink? For a generation who’s only as sentimental as their attention spans allow, remember, it might be easier to write off a Bart Simpson-surfing-on-a-pizza-slice tattoo as a relic from your shithead years, than it is to explain a body full of tributes to people you might never want to talk to again.
