Brooklyn Beckham got his first tattoo and the internet has a lot of questions
Brooklyn Beckham got his first tattoo over the weekend and the internet has a lot to say about it.
The 18-year-old -- who's the eldest child of Victoria and David Beckham -- posted a series of Instagram snaps of the work-in-progress on his forearm as he was being tattooed by his dad's friend, tattoo artist Mark Mahoney.
But not everyone was enamoured with Beckham's choice of design, which appears to be a detailed portrait of a Native American figure wearing a feathered headdress.
His choice of design appears to be an homage to his dad, who has a similar tattoo on his torso. "Just like dads," wrote Beckham in one Instagram post.
While some commenters appeared to really like the tattoo, others thought the tattoo design might be an act of cultural appropriation.
"Are you Native American or do you have Native American blood? I had no idea. If not then this tattoo is cultural appropriation, super offensive and just wrong," wrote one commenter.
"Because he is not Native American and it's incredibly offensive and just NAGL for someone who comes from colonial British lineage to be getting a tattoo of a chief in a war bonnet," wrote another.
Many people had questions for Beckham. "Why Native American??" queried one follower. "Cultural appropriation?" asked another. "What's the meaning. Is anyone from your family Native American I assume not you are a English wtf," another follower asked.
"Y on earth would u get a Native American tattoo when ... you're not even ... nvm," commented one confused follower.
Others weren't sure what to think about the tattoo. "Not sure how I feel about this," said one person.
Beckham hasn't yet responded to commenters' concerns over cultural appropriation.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
