Ant McPartlin’s tattoos are easy to miss when he’s in a suit, which is probably why they keep becoming news whenever he rolls up his sleeves. There’s a lot going on: a family tree, a John Lennon tribute, a rose and arrow, dog designs, recovery-related ink, and a chest tattoo for his wife, Anne-Marie.
The collection has grown alongside some pretty major life changes. Ant has spoken openly about recovery, marriage, and family, and those subjects show up in the designs. He also has a sense of humour about the whole thing. Not every mark needs a grand speech behind it, and not every symbol has a confirmed explanation. That mix of certainty and mystery makes the collection feel lived-in.
The family tree is the centre of the collection
The biggest and most personal piece is the family tree tattoo on Ant’s shoulder. The branches carry the names of the people and animals closest to him. Public photos have shown names connected to his wife Anne-Marie, her daughters Daisy and Poppy, their son Wilder, and the family dogs Milo, Bumble, and Hurley.
It caused a brief online fuss when fans thought Hurley had been left off. Hurley is the Labrador Ant shares with his former wife Lisa Armstrong, and Ant quickly explained that the name was there but had been covered by the newborn in the original photo. His response was simple: Hurley was on the tree too.
That little correction says a lot about the design. It isn’t a generic tree chosen because trees look nice in tattoo flash. The branches are carrying a list of relationships, including the dogs. The names make the shoulder piece read like a private family chart that happens to be visible in public photographs.
Wilder’s arrival also explains why the tattoo became a talking point. The design was shown around the time Ant and Anne-Marie welcomed their son, so the newest name was tied directly to a major family announcement. It gives the piece a timeline as well as a meaning.
His John Lennon tattoo turns a song into a tribute
On his right forearm, Ant wears a large circular tattoo based on the Imagine mosaic at Strawberry Fields in Central Park. The word “Imagine” sits at the centre, surrounded by a black-and-white pattern that echoes the memorial’s tiled design. It’s a recognisable reference, but the circular format makes it work as a piece of body art rather than a pasted-in photograph.
The tattoo was revealed ahead of an I’m a Celebrity series and quickly became one of the easiest parts of Ant’s collection to identify. It also fits with his long-standing affection for music. The choice is more specific than a generic guitar or lyric. He picked a place, an image, and a word that already carry a history.
From a distance, the piece looks almost like a mandala or wheel. Up close, the centre gives it away. The word “Imagine” is the detail that makes the reference clear, while the surrounding shapes give the forearm a darker, more graphic block.
There are two useful ways to read it. It can be seen as a John Lennon tribute, which is the straightforward explanation. It can also be read as a reminder of a hopeful idea, especially beside Ant’s other tattoos about family and recovery. The meaning is personal, but the reference is deliberately public.
Anne-Marie appears close to his heart
Ant has more than one tattoo connected to his wife. The clearest is “Amzie” across his chest above his heart. Amzie is Anne-Marie’s nickname, so the placement does most of the explaining. It is a small, direct tribute rather than a complicated symbol that needs decoding.
He also has a simple letter A inside a heart on his chest, added in 2021. The two pieces sit in the same emotional neighbourhood: one uses a nickname, the other uses an initial. Neither tries to hide who inspired it.
The newer chest tattoo has been described alongside a sun with black wings on his stomach. The winged sun is visible in reports about the same period, though Ant has not given the same kind of detailed public explanation for every part of it. It is better to leave that distinction in place than turn a guess into a fact.
What is clear is that Anne-Marie’s presence is not limited to one design. Her nickname appears in the family tree, the chest piece, and the heart initial. The repeated reference feels less like a one-off gesture and more like a running thread.
The rose and arrow carry different kinds of meaning
Ant’s arms also include a rose tattoo and an arrow tattoo. The rose sits on one forearm and the arrow on the other, giving the pair a nice visual balance even though they are separate pieces. The rose is often associated with love, while Ant has described the arrow as having a personal and positive meaning.
That is about as far as the confirmed explanation goes. People often attach a universal meaning to an arrow—direction, momentum, getting through a difficult stretch—but Ant has not publicly pinned it to one neat definition. The safest reading is the one he has offered: it is positive, and it matters to him.
The rose has a softer look than the Lennon mosaic. Its long stem gives the forearm some vertical movement, while the arrow points across the skin and creates a sharper shape. Together, they stop the collection becoming one big block of black geometry.
These are the kind of tattoos that can look straightforward until you remember how often they appear in daily life. Ant’s arms are visible on television, in holiday photos, and whenever he is presenting in short sleeves. Simple symbols become part of his recognisable on-screen image.
His dog tattoos are a proper family tribute
Ant’s love of dogs is written into more than the family tree. He has shown a design of three cartoon dogs on his forearm, representing Milo, Bumble, and Hurley. The names are important because these are not anonymous pet portraits. The three dogs are treated as members of the family.
The dog design also explains why Hurley’s supposed absence caused such a reaction. Fans who knew the backstory were looking for him, and Ant wanted them to know that he had not been forgotten. The full tree photo settled the argument by showing the name where it had been hidden.
There’s something warmer about this part of the collection than the phrase “pet tattoo” suggests. The dogs appear in the same family system as the children and Anne-Marie. That puts them beside the human names instead of treating them as a separate novelty.
It is a very Ant detail: sentimental, slightly chaotic, and impossible to explain without mentioning the dogs. The pieces make more sense together than they would in a quick list.
The harder years left a few quiet reminders
Some of Ant’s tattoos are connected to his recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. A small design often identified as the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol sits near his wrist, although reports have noted that Ant has not personally confirmed every detail of the interpretation. There are also small stars and other marks around the arms, plus the letters “S&H”, which have been linked in coverage to his sobriety story.
This is an area where a little caution matters. The recovery context is well documented, but not every shape has an official caption from Ant. The collection includes symbols people have interpreted from photographs, and those interpretations should stay labelled as interpretations.
Even so, the placement makes sense. Wrist tattoos are hard to ignore. They sit where a person can see them during ordinary routines, which makes them useful as reminders. The family pieces look outward toward the people Ant loves; the recovery-related symbols can work inward, as private markers he carries through the day.
Some pieces stay in the background
Alongside the major designs, Ant has smaller tattoos and lettering that don’t always get a full explanation. Some are visible only when his sleeves are pushed up, and some are easy to miss in television footage. That does not make them unimportant, but it does mean the documented inventory should separate what is clear from what is guessed.
His collection includes small stars, stacked lettering, geometric marks, and the circular wrist symbol that has been linked to recovery. The rose, arrow, family tree, dog designs, and Lennon tribute are the pieces with the clearest descriptions in public coverage. Other marks sit in the background, adding texture without a confirmed story attached.
That unfinished information is part of what makes celebrity tattoo lists tricky. A photograph can show a shape, but only the wearer can explain why it is there. Not every line needs a made-up meaning. Sometimes the honest answer is that Ant has not said.
The collection keeps its own balance
Put together, Ant’s tattoos are less about a single style than a set of attachments. The family tree and dog designs keep his home life visible. Anne-Marie’s nickname and the heart initial bring his marriage into the collection. The Lennon piece connects him to music, while the rose and arrow add simpler symbols that still have personal weight.
Recovery is another thread, handled through small marks rather than a giant statement. That choice feels right for a subject who has spoken about difficult years but has also moved forward. The tattoos are reminders, tributes, and bits of visual identity all at once.
There’s no need to pretend every tattoo was planned as part of one grand sleeve. Some arrived at different points, under different circumstances, and with different levels of explanation. That is why the collection feels human. It has a family tree, a John Lennon memorial, a wife’s nickname, beloved dogs, and a few symbols whose full stories remain Ant’s own.
Watch the tattoo story on video