In the aftermath of the tragic bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester last month, the singer and a few members of her tour crew have gotten matching tattoos of a worker bee, the city’s symbol, to celebrate Manchester’s industrious spirit and to honor the victims of the horrific attack. The bombing took place at England’s Manchester Arena on May 22, as crowds were leaving Ariana Grande’s concert, when a suicide bomber detonated a homemade bomb in the foyer of the arena, killing 23 people and injuring 119 others, 23 critically. The bombing was carried out by a 22-year-old British Muslim, who police believe acted alone, and people all over the world have since gotten Manchester worker bee tattoos to show their support for the grieving city.
Being that the attack took place at her show, Ariana Grande was obviously shaken by the violent act, and took to Twitter shortly afterward to admit that she felt “broken,” adding, “I don’t have words.” She spent several days with her family in Boca Raton, Florida, before returning to Manchester this past weekend to deliver an emotional performance at a benefit gig to raise funds for survivors of the attack, and then commemorated the experience with a worker bee tattoo, along with her crew. The tattoos were done backstage after the One Love tribute concert on June 4, by local tattoo shop Manchester Ink, as part of a tattoo fundraiser, with the proceeds from the tattoos going to the families affected by the bombing.
Ariana Grande has quite a few tattoos to her name, and all her pieces were done as tributes to the people and things she holds closest to her heart – her family, her music and her best friends. Now, thanks to the new worker bee tattoo on her arm, she will always remember Manchester, England, which, in the 1800s was packed with textile mills that were often described as “hives of activity,” and the workers inside them compared to worker bees. Amid speculation that Ariana would cancel or postpone future public performances in the wake of the bombing, the singer announced that she would restart her Dangerous Woman tour in Paris on June 7, carrying with her a permanent reminder of the victims of the Manchester attack.
