Sam Smith is fresh off a successful weight-loss regimen, his In the Lonely Hour album recently hit number one on Australia’s charts, and now the four-time Grammy Award winner has opted for a new anchor tattoo as a tribute to his die-hard fans, whom he affectionately calls his “little sailors.” Sam debuted his brand-new anchor arm tattoo on Instagram, along with the caption, “For you, my little sailors,” and he also posted a video of him getting the tattoo, which was inked by tattoo artist Rhys Gordon at the Little Tokyo tattoo shop in Sydney, Australia on April 27.
The Instagram photo of Sam Smith’s tattoo shows a small anchor image inked in solid black on the outside of his left arm, and the new ink joins a number of other tattoos the singer already has, including an image of ice cream on his left leg, two mystery symbols on his fingers, and a plane tattoo on his right leg. According to Sam, he’ll “never tell anyone” why he had the secret symbols done, but he got the plane tattoo when he was drunk in Malia at age 18. “I’d just got off the plane, so I got a plane [tattoo],” the 22-year-old singer said in a recent interview with MTV.
The nickname “little sailors” comes from a song by the same name that Sam Smith wrote when he moved to London, about the difficulty he faced in trying to break into the music business. Some lyrics from the song include: “Hold on little sailor. It will be alright. I know you’ll be braver, best behavior tonight. We got so close to the fame and the lights. Watching the stars tonight. Little sailor, let’s sail tonight.” Sam also bought an anchor necklace earlier this year so that he could always feel close to his “little sailors.”
Sam Smith is currently touring Australia in support of his debut album, and it’s no surprise that the 22-year-old wanted to celebrate his ultra-devoted fan base, especially considering he has sold more than five million copies of In the Lonely Hour since it was released nearly a year ago. It’s pretty cute that Sam chose to honor his fans with a discreet anchor tattoo, and rumor has it, the singer’s band mates Ben Thomas and Brendan Grieve also got anchor tattoos, so now they all match! So cute.
