Rihanna Covers up Her Matching Tattoo With Drake Amid A$AP Rocky Romance

Rihanna is officially moving on from her past relationships. As the singer stepped out with new beau A$AP Rocky for a date Thursday night, fans noticed one thing missing: the well-known matching tattoo she got with Drake. The singer has seemingly gotten the shark tattooed covered with another design.

The buzz surrounding the ink was sparked Thursday night after The Shade Room shared videos of the “Love On the Brain” singer and her boyfriend from their outing in New York City. The two were spotted leaving Barricade when a fan approached them to sign his vinyl, with paparazzi taking a few snaps of the interaction. When those photos made their way to social media, one image in particular caught fans’ attention and had them zooming in. Where there was once a shark tattoo on the singer’s ankle, there is now a crown tattoo.

Rihanna and drake first got the matching tattoos back in September 2016 amid their relationship. E! News reported at the time that the camouflage shark tattoo had “special significance” between the two, as it was a reference to one of their dates. Drake had reportedly taken his then-girlfriend to Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto and bought her a stuffed animal shark. To commemorate that moment, Rihanna got a shark tattoo on her ankle, which was inked by celebrity tattoo artist Bang Bang, and Drake got a matching one on his arm, placed next to the 6ix God hands. According to Cosmopolitan, Rihanna had been spotted with the tattoo as recently as March 28 of this year when she was photographed at Giorgio Baldi in Los Angeles.

The apparent cover-up of the tattoo quickly sparked plenty of chatter on social media. Responding to the image, one person tweeted, “Rihanna covered the shark tattoo…. I know Drake somewhere out there bawling his eyes out.” Another person said, “Whoa. Rihanna covered her shark tattoo with Drake. She def moves on.” It is unclear if Drake has also had the tattoo covered.

Rihanna’s apparent decision to replace the tattoo with new ink comes amid her new relationship with A$AP. Following months of speculation, the “Wild for the Night” rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, confirmed their relationship for GQ‘s June/July 2021 cover story, calling his girlfriend “the love of my life” and “my lady.”