If you’ve ever seen the popular HBO series Girls, or seen its creator Lena Dunham walk the red carpet in a backless dress, you’ve probably caught a glimpse of the actress’ unique back tattoo of her favorite children’s book character, Eloise. With quite a few bold tattoos visible on her arm, wrist, ribcage and back, it’s easy to miss the small Eloise tattoo inked at the base of Lena’s back, but it’s that tiny little tattoo that means the most to the 28-year-old. At a New York screening of her HBO documentary It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise this week, Lena Dunham sat down with Vanity Fair to talk about the inspiration behind her now-famous Eloise tattoo.
“Eloise is such an important force in my life and I can relate to her in so many ways,” Lena told Vanity Fair about her smallest (and very first!) tattoo on March 16. “She doesn’t brush her hair, she doesn’t care that much about how she looks and that her stomach hangs over her skirt. She’s a feminist even though she may not know that word yet and she’s got that independent streak, where she does what she wants to and has this super-strong sense of justice that may not make sense to everyone else.” When she was younger, this independent, devil-may-care attitude struck a chord with Lena, who has always felt she could relate to Eloise. “As a kid, it was deeply appealing to me.”
Although her father enjoyed reading her Dr. Seuss books as a child, it was when her mother first read her the popular Eloise series at the age of three that she became “obsessed” with the precocious six-year-old. “It was one of the few books I enjoyed reading and my mom enjoyed reading to me,” said Lena Dunham during the Vanity Fair interview. And that so-called obsession with Eloise only grew stronger as she got older. It was at the age of 17, that Lena decided she desperately wanted a tattoo and persuaded her parents to let her get inked during a family trip to Taos, New Mexico. “My dad rolled with it somehow, and I got my first tattoo. Eloise was always what I wanted.”
Despite Lena Dunham’s decision to get a portrait of Eloise tattooed on her back, the 28-year-old says she’ll never get a tattoo dedicated to her boyfriend, Fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff. “You know what, getting a tattoo of a significant other never seems to go well,” Lena said. “It never seems to help a relationship. I think we’ve all been tempted, but having a tattoo of their name is almost like daring yourself to break up with them. So, no for me. I’d like to keep things a little more pure. Maybe an image that resonates with him, but definitely not his name or his face!” We always knew Lena Dunham was a pretty cool chick, but now that we know the meaning behind her sweet Eloise tattoo, we love her even more!
