The Scarce yet Meaningful Sean Bean Tattoos
Although there are only three known, small-sized Sean Bean tattoos, they are all quite meaningful. Sean is an English stage and film actor of tremendous talent who is best known for his role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. His first major screen time was in the last of the three smash hits, Fellowship of the Ring which played a huge role in one of the Sean Bean tattoos.
Additionally, Sean is one of Hollywood’s best known villains, starring in Don’t Say a Word as a kidnapper/jewel thief, an ex-con/wife beater in Essex Boys, the villainous treasure hunter in National Treasure and a scheming scientist in the 2005 release of The Island.
Of course, with Sean’s appearance it only seems natural that he plays a villain with his sly eyes, square jawline, lank hair and smoker’s teeth. Somehow these characteristics that would make someone else unattractive have landed him as a sex symbol and of course, the Sean Bean tattoos only add to that bad boy image, despite their small size.
Nine
The first of the Sean Bean tattoos is the word nine that is written in Tengwar, found on his shoulder. The nine close companions spent a substantial amount of time together in New Zealand shooting the Fellowship of the Ring. On their last day, they all decided to get a tattoo together to commemorate the hard work and long journey that they had spent together.
The other actors that received this one of the Sean Bean tattoos are Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Betty Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen. Interestingly, John Rhys-Davies who played Gimli, opted out of the bonding experience and sent his stunt double instead.
This tattoo holds a lot of meaning for Sean, not only for the experience and close friends he shared all that time with but also because shooting the film was incredibly troubling for him. Sean’s fear of flying added a challenge to shooting the film due to New Zealand’s mountainous landscape.
After one of the tougher rides to location, he swore he would fly no more and in one instance, Sean actually took a ski lift up the mountain and then hiked several miles in full costume to avoid getting on a plane.
Home Town Tribute
The other two Sean Bean tattoos both pay tribute to where he grew up. He was raised in Handsworth, Sheffield and vowed to never forget where he came from. The first football tattoo that he got reads 100% Blade on the upper part of his left arm. He also wears the letters SUFC on his wrist.
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Although football was a dream for him, when he was younger, he smashed a glass door in an argument, leaving a piece of glass in his leg that not only left a significant scar and temporarily impeded his walking, it prevented him from realizing his dreams of becoming a professional football player. Shortly after that, he took up acting which is fans are deeply grateful for.