Ricky and Ariana attend a Spotify event in Los Angeles together as a couple in February 2016.Photo: Getty Images
Grande and Álvarez became Instagram official this week and seemed to confirm their reunion with a photo dump that featured several mirror selfies of them embracing. One slide also featured a close up shot of a page with “I do love you” written in blue ink—a hint at what was to come.
Grande has up to 75 documented tattoos, the first a small heart above her toe which she had done when she was 18. Spread across her body, there’s a mix of dainty and intricate fine-line pieces and bolder scenes: a large image of the character Chihiro from Spirited Away on her forearm, album title R.E.M. behind her ear, H2GKMO (an acronym of “Honest to God, Keep Moving”) on her hand. Several tattoos pay tribute to significant people in her life, including a “for good” tattoo in reference to Wicked which she shares with Cynthia Erivo and an “E” for Erivo’s character Elphaba.
Besides body art, beauty and glam are a huge part of Ariana Grande’s storytelling: both personally and as a pop star. Within the two-hour show, Grande’s glam team, Michael Anthony and Alyx Liu, also join her onstage.
“This show, and everything that I do, would be incomplete without them,” Grande previously told Vogue in an exclusive interview. “Makeup and hair are such an enormous piece of storytelling, for both music and acting. because my art is nothing without theirs.” After three years as a blonde for Wicked, Grande went back to a shade of honey brunette late last year in time for tour. Across the show, she has also returned to her famous and signature high pony, which Liu alternately styles into a scrunchied ballerina bun and long and loose throughout the show.
Last night, Grande changed the lyrics in “thank u, next” once again: “Wrote some songs about Ricky, we don’t talk about that.” A clavicle-caressing tattoo debuted on one of the world’s most prominent stages to around 20,000 people is, still, quite the statement.