Julia Michaels has been getting tattoos for more than a decade and still adds to the collection. She has more than 30 pieces, most on her arms, with others on her hands, neck, back and legs.

The designs range from music references and flowers to jokes, self-reminders, and tattoos she got with friends or family. She often gets several pieces in one session, so the total can climb quickly.

Some tattoos tie directly to her songwriting; others are private reminders she has explained in interviews. This guide focuses on pieces that are easy to identify and have a clear story.

The pink piano that points back to music

One of Julia’s early tattoos is a pink piano on her left inner forearm. She got it in 2012 to mark her music career. Its position makes it easy to see in red-carpet photos and performances.

The piano is one of several designs tied to writing and music. Julia also has a vintage microphone with a rose, a typewriter, and a music note on one finger. Together, they trace her connection to writing and music.

Her approach is straightforward: if something matters to her, she puts it on her skin. An image she likes can be reason enough too. The designs don’t have to share one style.

The bird in flight above her elbow

In summer 2018, Julia added a bird in flight to her left arm, just above the elbow. The black-and-gray design sits among her other tattoos. She hasn’t shared a specific meaning for it, so there’s no need to assign one.

Some of Julia’s tattoos come with a full explanation; others are images she wanted to keep. The bird is quieter than the lettering and heavier designs around it, and helps break them up.

The bird adds movement to the arm. Unlike the flower or typewriter nearby, it looks as if it’s heading somewhere. It stands out without bright color.

“Art Aint Easy” and the broken heart

On her upper inner left arm, Julia has a red, traditional-style broken heart with the words “Art Aint Easy” around it. The phrase is blunt and suits a songwriter who turns messy feelings into songs.

The red ink stands out against the darker tattoos nearby. The words sit close to the heart, so they read as part of the image instead of a separate caption.

There’s a dry joke in “Art Aint Easy.” It sounds like something to say after a long writing session or a song that took forever to finish. The tattoo can be both a reminder and a joke.

The “Protagonist + Antagonist” flower

A large flower covers part of Julia’s left forearm, with “protagonist + antagonist” in script beside it. The phrase sounds like a note from a writing session, which fits her work better than a generic quote.

Julia has talked about carrying both sides of yourself. The words connect with how she thinks about characters, conflict and the stories inside a song.

Other flowers appear across her arms, including roses and a colorful lotus she later called an artichoke. The motif returns, but each tattoo has its own feel: this one is about writing and identity, while the shoulder rose is more decorative.

On her left arm, Julia has a pin-up girl in a green dress on the inside of her bicep, a faceless woman and a doll-like bust. The vintage images have a slightly strange feel. Some of Julia’s tattoos are meant to look odd.

The vintage microphone with a rose

Julia got a vintage microphone on her outer forearm in 2012, with a rose below it. It’s one of her clearest music tattoos, and the old-fashioned microphone gives it a classic look.

The rose softens the microphone design and connects it to the other flowers on her arms. Across the collection, music, words and floral images turn up in different combinations.

The microphone dates to roughly the same period as the piano, before some of the larger arm pieces were added. The tattoos have grown together over time, not appeared as one finished sleeve in a single session.

The typewriter on her upper arm

Julia’s typewriter sits high on her right arm. Like the piano and microphone, it points to her work, but this one is about words themselves.

The simple image sits easily beside the more colorful tattoos. Julia doesn’t need every design to be a large portrait or a complex scene; a small typewriter says plenty for someone who writes for a living.

The typewriter is easy to read as a reference to her work. She hasn’t shared when or why she chose it, but its place in the collection is clear.

The rose wrapped around her shoulder

A pink rose wraps around Julia’s right shoulder. It’s one of the more visible flowers, especially in sleeveless photos where the bloom follows the curve of her shoulder.

Flowers appear beside words, instruments, hearts and characters in Julia’s collection. The shoulder rose is softer than the broken heart and more traditional than the “Protagonist + Antagonist” flower.

The rose adds color to an arm where much of the work is black and gray. Those small flashes of pink and red keep the collection from looking flat when the pieces sit together.

Miley Cyrus’s tattoos offer a useful comparison: both singers build a personal style from smaller pieces, while Julia’s collection keeps returning to music, words and flowers.

The perception symbol and light bulb

On Julia’s right arm, a perception symbol combines two triangles and three circles. She has explained that it represents how the brain can see something as whole even when parts are incomplete. It turns an idea about the mind into a simple design.

Above it is a light bulb with a solar system inside. Julia has said the bulb represents thoughts and the subconscious mind. Both tattoos were added in March 2017, so they work as a pair despite being separate designs.

The same arm has a geometric heart and eye, a “Free Hugs” sweater and other small pieces. The perception symbol is thoughtful without dominating the rest of an arm covered in different ideas.

The tattoos that remind her to speak up and breathe

Julia has a “Speak Up” tattoo below her neck, with a line running down her chest. She calls it one of her favorites because she doesn’t always speak up and wants reminders to be bold and brave.

She also has “Just Breathe” on the inside of her right wrist and an “I am” tattoo on the side of her neck, followed by a blank space. The open ending leaves room for possibilities instead of fixing her to one label.

On her right hand, Julia has “I love you” in her own handwriting. She has said she got it to remind herself to love herself, because she sometimes forgets.

The funny and very specific pieces

Not all of Julia’s tattoos are about music or self-care. She has a golden snitch she got with her dad because she’s a Harry Potter fan, a baby-pink snake for her Slytherin side, a scorpion for her zodiac sign, and four gemstones for her fans, whom she calls her “little gems.”

Other designs include a rain cloud with blue drops above one knee, “Calm” with a down arrow, and “Kiss Here” across the middle of her back. Her hands have roses, a bee, a music note and a red heart, plus matching arrows she got with Selena Gomez.

One colorful lotus didn’t turn out the way Julia expected. She said she went in without enough research, came away with something that looked like an artichoke, then added a large X and the words “bad idea.”

What Julia Michaels’s tattoos say about her

Julia’s tattoos don’t make one big statement. They’re more like a notebook: songs, friends and family, self-reminders, images she liked, and a funny mistake. The reminders are small, but they’re part of what makes these tattoos feel personal.

The collection is easy to recognize because it keeps growing. Julia adds pieces in groups, letting new tattoos sit beside old ones as the whole thing changes with her. There’s plenty of meaning in the collection, but it doesn’t feel too polished; the mistakes and jokes are part of it too.

Julia has more than 30 tattoos, but no single theme explains them all. The piano, broken heart, flowers, microphone, typewriter, perception symbol and small reminders give the best sense of the mix.

Watch Julia Michaels talk about her tattoos

In this short interview, Julia talks about some of her favorite tattoos and what they mean: