In his younger years, Prince Harry was known for his rebellious streak – and while his friends likely egged him on at points, they also knew when to rein him in.
That protective nature was on full display during the Duke of Sussex's infamous 2012 trip to Las Vegas. While the getaway is best remembered for the scandalous leak of a naked photo of Harry playing strip billiards, his friends had managed to step in earlier in the week, successfully talking the royal out of getting a permanent tattoo.
Prince Harry's tattoo
Writing in the pages of his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry recalled the raucous trip, and his desire to do something to remember it.
© Getty Images"I need something to commemorate this trip, I decided," Prince Harry wrote. "Something to symbolize my sense of freedom, my sense of carpe diem. For instance…a tattoo? Yes! Just the thing! Maybe on my shoulder? No, too visible. Lower back? No, too…racy. Maybe my foot? Yes. The sole of my foot! Where the skin had once peeled away. Layers upon layers of symbolism!"
Sharing what he planned to have inked on his skin, the Duke mused: "Now, what would the tattoo be? I thought and thought. What's important to me? What's sacred? Of course – Botswana. I'd seen a tattoo parlour down the block. I hoped they'd have a good atlas, with a clear map of Botswana."
The Prince continued that his friends were dead against the idea, reminiscing: "I went to find Billy the Rock to tell him where we were going. He smiled. No way. My mates backed him up. Absolutely not. In fact, they promised to physically stop me. I was not going to get a tattoo, they said, not on their watch, least of all a foot tattoo of Botswana.
"They promised to hold me down, knock me out, whatever it took. A tattoo is permanent, it's forever! Their arguments and threats are one of my last clear memories from that evening. I gave in. The tattoo could wait till the next day."
On how the night panned out instead, Prince Harry bemoaned: "Instead, we trooped off to a club, where I curled into the corner of a leather banquette and watched a procession of young women come and go, chatting up my mates. I talked to one or two, and encouraged them to focus on my mates. But mostly I stared into space and thought about being forced to forgo my tattoo dream."
The Duke's desire for a tattoo remains to this day. In fact, he was seen just last year entering a tattoo parlour in New York City – but several months later, he confirmed it was a prank.
Prince Harry's prank
In a light-hearted sketch for the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, Prince Harry was joined by country superstar Jelly Roll at East Side Ink on the Lower East Side.
© Invictus GamesAfter some miscommunication between the pair, Harry relents and lets the American singer and rapper give him his 'first tattoo'.
