The Many Tattoos of Mena Suvari

Since her debut 1997 film Nowhere, Mena Suvari has gone on to become somewhat of a popular actress, starring in American Beauty, American Pie, Day of the Dead and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.  When she isn’t busy appearing in films and television shows like HBO’s Six Feet Under, she is busy involved with charities whose cause is breast cancer, taking part in the “End Violence Against Women” campaign, being an activist for the African Medical and Research Foundation that is an African relief organisation, modelling for Lancôme cosmetics and appearing in fashion magazines such as Vogue.  She has even branched into fashion design, designing a limited-edition three scarf collection.  She will even travel to high schools and encourage kids to quit smoking.  With as busy as she is, you would think it would be hard for her to find time to get questionable tattoos done, but somehow she manages.

The Tattoos

On the back of Mena Suvari’s neck, she has the etching of a lion, which itself isn’t that bad.  However she made the regrettable choice of getting “word sound power” inked on directly underneath it, which certainly makes sense to her.  At least she doesn’t have to spend time staring at it.  After having her ink done in 2010, ahead of her wedding to the Italian concert promoter Simone Sestito, with whom she had been engaged to since 2008, she made a point of talking about what she would do to cover her tattoos up to avoid offending his family, since on his mother’s side there are two nuns who would not approve and that is why she “isn’t too keen” on showing them off, despite what the countless open backed dresses she wears would say.

One has to wonder if these tattoos had something to do with her divorce from Sestito after a mere 18 months citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason.  Shortly after, she was seen back at Mr. Cartoon’s tattoo studio in LA having additional words added above her lion tattoo, which doesn’t leave too much room between the original tattoo and her hair.  The world will be waiting on baited breath to see what genius insight this latest ink will reveal to the world.

Mena Suvari also has a number 13 inked on her chest, which Simone Sestito also got a matching version of on his chest for some unknown reason back when they were engaged.  Whatever the reason, one thing that can be said for sure is hers looks a lot better and more stylized than his really generic and ugly 13, which looks like a cut rate prison tattoo, or something that some idiot NBA player would spend $1200 on when it’s more like a $40 30 minute job.

The Future

It will be interesting to see whether her tattoos will affect what future film roles she receives, or how digital technology will be able to cover them up since not only Mena Suvari but many other celebrities have tattoos that might mean a lot to them personally but seem like just a bad decision to outside observers, like Megan Fox’s Marilyn Monroe tattoo for example.