What to Know
When Rihanna revealed a tattoo on her hand that was designed by her kids, people had thoughts. First, about the sentiment behind a hand-drawn tattoo from someone’s kids. But then, they had opinions about the actual tattoo, which is a combination of multiple colors scribbled into an undiscernible picture.
But on a Reddit post, someone shared a screenshot from Rihanna’s Instagram where she revealed her middle child with A$AP Rocky, Riot, designed the scribbled tattoo. The same screenshot showed someone seeming to know exactly why Rihanna got a tattoo from her middle child’s drawing, and other people have ideas too.
Rihanna’s tattoo has significance with her middle child, apparently.
In the screenshot, Rihanna told the user in the comments that she told Riot to write “happy.” The result was a series of scribbled lines, but the sentiment behind the tattoo is getting a one-of-a-kind tribute to your child, or children. The crux of the middle child in any family is that they are sometimes the so-called “forgotten child,” and plenty of middle children get this, even into adulthood. The youngest in a family is the baby, the oldest is the firstborn, and the middle child is just sort of…there.
One possibility is that Rihanna wanted to go against this and honor her middle child with the tattoo, which makes total sense.
“Middle child is forgotten vs can’t forget you have a tattoo,” one person wrote in the Reddit post’s comments.
Another wrote, “Maybe she ignores the middle kid like we expect and thinks superficially that getting this tattoo makes her a better person and mom.”
“It’s a preemptive strike on her part,” someone else theorized. “When the kid grows up and says, ‘#1 is your first and favorite and #3 is your only girl, what about me? You never think of me!’ She then reveals the tattoo and says, ‘don’t come at me, child.'”
Others suggested that the tattoo proves the middle child will not be able to get away from middle child syndrome theories.
“I think it means the middle child is the favorite? I’m an only child too though so who knows,” one person suggested on Reddit. They then added, “Oh wait…I bet it means the middle child will never live down having drawn that tattoo.”
Some think there is no hidden meaning behind Rihanna’s tattoo, though.
Then again, Rihanna’s tattoo in honor of Riot, her middle child, might not have any real significance behind a tattoo that one of her kids inadvertently designed with a drawing.
It’s possible that Rihanna liked it at the moment and wanted to have it done on a whim and that she plans to do the same for her other kids. But as most middle children can attest to, getting that honor first is a pretty big deal.
It might have been designed by more than her middle child.
Although Rihanna commented on her original post to say that Riot essentially designed the tattoo, in May 2026, celebrity tattoo artist Bang Bang, whose real name is Keith McCurdy, posted several videos on Instagram depicting him giving Rihanna the tattoo. In the caption, he wrote, “Family tats @badgalriri. Designed by her babies.”
The drawing, scribbled onto a paper with random Paw Patrol stickers (another relatable mom moment), was tattooed on the back of Rihanna’s leg, where her knee bends.
Someone commented, “No matter the tax bracket all of our kids love the same cartoons and do the same things.” That’s a pretty fair takeaway from the whole thing.
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