JoJo’s tattoos make more sense when they are read as a timeline rather than as one carefully planned sleeve. Her collection includes music symbols, family handwriting, New Hampshire pride, travel imagery and phrases she has carried through different stages of her life. She has also been unusually open about several of them, which gives the collection something better than a guess at symbolism: it gives us her own explanations.
The public record is not a perfect inventory. Some smaller pieces are easy to see in a close portrait but disappear in a performance photograph, while other designs are described by tattoo catalogues without a clear first-person explanation. The useful approach is to separate what JoJo has said from what the photographs show. That keeps the article specific without pretending every line of ink has a confirmed meaning.
The music clef on her finger was JoJo’s first tattoo
JoJo has said the small music clef on her finger was her first tattoo. She got it at 17, when she slipped away from a hotel with a makeup artist she worked with. The story is memorable because it began as a teenage act of independence, not as a grand statement about her career. She returned to the hotel knowing her mother would dislike it, and her mother did not disappoint her.
JoJo later described tattoos as “permanent accessories”, a phrase that fits this first piece particularly well. A finger is a visible place for a small design, but the clef is still compact enough to feel like jewellery rather than a large declaration. The musical subject is obvious without needing a symbolic explanation: she was a singer who chose a sign connected directly to the work she loved.
In close photographs, the mark sits among rings and other small hand details, so it can be easy to mistake for another piece of jewellery or a decorative symbol. The placement also explains why different lists sometimes describe it slightly differently. The important points are consistent: it is a small music clef, it was her first tattoo, and she got it while still a teenager.
Her father’s signature is kept on her wrist
One of the most personal pieces in JoJo’s collection is her late father’s signature. She brought a written statement from him to a tattoo artist before a Los Angeles show and had the handwriting copied onto her wrist. That detail matters because the design is not simply a surname or a generic memorial script. It preserves the shape of his own writing.
JoJo has spoken about the family name in connection with the tattoo. Her surname is Levesque, and she has explained that her father was the only boy among his siblings while she was his only child. The signature therefore carries both a visual memory of him and a concern about what happens to the family name in the future. It is a small tattoo, but the meaning is unusually well documented.
The wrist is a fitting place for it because it stays close to the hand. It can be hidden beneath a bracelet or sleeve, then seen whenever she reaches for a microphone, signs something or works with music. Unlike a large portrait, the tattoo does not turn the memorial into a public spectacle. The handwriting keeps it intimate.
Music notes sit among the piercings in her ear
JoJo’s music notes near her ear are one of the clearest examples of her tattoos and jewellery working together. She told iHeartRadio that she had them done at Shamrock Social Club in Los Angeles on Sunset. In the same conversation she joked that, with the extra piercings she had added, her ear might eventually “fall off.”
The notes are small and positioned in a place that is easily hidden by hair. That makes them different from the larger script on her neck or the writing on her wrist. They are less like a signpost and more like a private bit of music notation that happens to become visible when she tucks her hair behind her ear.
There is no need to invent a song title or a single autobiographical message for them. JoJo’s own explanation is simpler: they are music notes, and the location connects them to the ear and to the sound that has shaped her work. The surrounding piercings make the area look busy in photographs, but the tattoo itself remains a separate, readable detail.
“Live free or die” and Levesque cover the back of her neck
The back of JoJo’s neck carries two lines of script: “Levesque” and “Live Free or Die”. The second phrase is the New Hampshire state motto, linking the tattoo to the state where she grew up. It is a plainly readable design, with the family name above the motto and both lines arranged to follow the shape of the neck.
JoJo has said she considered using “Live Free or Die” as an album title before deciding it sounded too intense. That makes the tattoo more interesting than a generic quote. The phrase was part of the way she was thinking about her identity and home, even if she ultimately chose a different title for the record.
She has also explained that the surname was connected to her father and the possibility that the Levesque name might not continue through her after marriage. In that context, the neck piece combines place and family. One line points to New Hampshire; the other keeps her father’s family name directly on her body.
Her right-hand script and small symbols are easy to miss
Close photographs show several smaller marks around JoJo’s hands and wrists, including a cursive “Truth” tattoo that The FADER noticed on her right hand. The word is not the same kind of memorial as her father’s signature, and JoJo has not attached a long public explanation to every small script mark. It is safer to describe what is visible than to turn one word into a complete biography.
Other catalogued designs include arrows, a small shamrock, a turquoise bracelet-style tattoo and a world map on the underside of her wrist. The world map has been described as deliberately imperfect, with the outline standing for travel and an open-ended outlook rather than for a particular country. Those details give the wrist area a layered look: fine script, small symbols and linework that resembles jewellery.
The photographs also show why tattoo lists can disagree. Hand tattoos are often partly hidden by rings, nails or the angle of a portrait. A mark that looks like a tiny flower in one photograph may be a different symbol in another. The most reliable inventory keeps the clearly reported designs, uses cautious wording for the small marks, and does not assign a private meaning that JoJo has never stated.
The “ever to excel” lettering is a separate piece on her side.
JoJo’s tattoo catalogue also records the phrase “ever to excel” in red ink on the right side of her stomach. The words come from Homer’s Iliad, a line she has identified as coming from a favourite poem. It is a different kind of tattoo from the music notes and the neck motto: instead of a short symbol, it is a literary fragment placed on a part of the body that is usually covered.
Because the lettering is rarely visible in ordinary red-carpet photographs, it is not as easy to inspect as the neck script. The wording is reported consistently in tattoo inventories, but a soft or cropped photograph should not be used to claim more than that. The placement and red colour are useful catalogue details; the literary connection is the meaningful context JoJo has supplied.
JoJo’s wrist collection also includes a Serenity Prayer.
A longer green script piece is commonly identified as the Serenity Prayer, wrapped around the wrist. It sits in a different visual category from the tiny clef and music notes because it uses several lines of writing and follows the circumference of the arm. The prayer is often listed beside her other wrist tattoos, although the public photographs do not always show the entire wording clearly.
The cautious description is therefore the strongest one: it is a wrist script tattoo associated with the Serenity Prayer, not a reason to invent a specific moment when JoJo got it or a personal explanation she has never given. Its scale suggests that the words themselves mattered more than a decorative symbol, while the curved placement lets the text move with the wrist.
What the photographs can and cannot establish
JoJo has more than twenty tattoos listed across interviews and visual catalogues, but no public list should be treated as permanently complete. New work can be added, older ink can fade, and small designs can disappear beneath hair, jewellery or clothing. The strongest entries in her tattoo record are the ones supported by her own comments: the first finger clef, her father’s signature, the ear music notes and the New Hampshire lettering.
The rest of the collection is still worth describing, especially when a photograph makes the placement or design clear. The key is to keep observation and interpretation separate. A world map can be described as a world map; a red phrase can be named; a small symbol can be placed on the hand or wrist. Meaning should be attached only where JoJo has actually supplied it.