Kelly Ripa’s small flower on her inner left ankle began with an afternoon in San Antonio and a suggestion from a limousine driver. She was 19 at the time. Years later, she called it her “symbol of youthful stupidity.”
The flower she got at 19
In a 2001 Los Angeles Times interview, Ripa said she was in San Antonio for her first All My Children appearance and had two hours to kill. The driver suggested a tattoo; she went along and told the tattooist to choose the flower. She described it as about four inches long, on the inside of her left ankle.
An older photo shows the flower as it was fading, with blue-green lines and a reddish center. It isn’t a current view of her ankle. In 2016, E! reported that the tattoo seemed to be disappearing, likely after laser treatment. A 2024 San Antonio report said it appeared to be gone, but neither report gives a confirmed date or account of the removal.
Ripa hasn’t claimed a hidden meaning for the flower. The story she tells is enough: a spur-of-the-moment choice she later regretted. If you’re considering a small tattoo, decide on the design yourself and give it more thought than she did that afternoon.
Kelly Ripa in the television space
Ripa told the story while profiles were covering her move from All My Children to daytime television with Regis Philbin. The flower was a small personal detail in a much larger career story, and not something viewers would necessarily see on the set.
A host away from the morning set
At the 2025 Academy Awards, Ripa arrived with her husband, Mark Consuelos, wearing a coral gown and a high ponytail. The red-carpet photo shows the couple at a formal event; her ankle is not visible.
Outside the studio
At a SiriusXM media event in New York, Ripa wore a pale pink blouse and white trousers. The relaxed outfit is a contrast with the Oscars gown, but this photo, too, is context rather than evidence about the ankle tattoo.
A long career, and a personal memory
Ripa appeared in a polka-dot blouse at the 2023 PaleyFest opening. That event image shows another public appearance, not the tattoo; the clearest record of the ankle flower remains the older photo and Ripa’s own account of how she got it.
In the clip below, Ripa and Consuelos talk with ABC News about the Oscars.