Prince Harry Recalls His Friends Blocking Him from Getting a Tattoo During Las Vegas Trip
- - Prince Harry Recalls His Friends Blocking Him from Getting a Tattoo During Las Vegas Trip
Stephanie PetitJanuary 16, 2026 at 2:00 AM
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Karwai Tang/WireImage
Prince Harry in London on Sept. 10, 2025 -
Prince Harry wanted to commemorate his 2012 trip to Las Vegas with a tattoo
Despite deciding on the spot and image for the tattoo, his friends "promised" to "physically stop" him from doing it
The Duke of Sussex later teamed up with Jelly Roll to get a fake neck tattoo for a video sketch
Prince Harry's 2012 visit to Las Vegas was also commemorated with some ink.
The Duke of Sussex, now 41, recalled his desire to get a tattoo in his memoir, Spare, on his infamous trip to Sin City — however, he was stopped by his friends.
In his book, published in 2023, Harry documented the Las Vegas trip, recalling the group checking into a suite and eating like "kings" at a steakhouse on their first night. The following day, breakfast came with Bloody Marys before heading to a pool party — and after a day of drinks, Harry said, "I was in rough shape, and filling up with...ideas."
"I need something to commemorate this trip, I decided," Prince Harry wrote. "Something to symbolize my sense of freedom, my sense of carpe diem. For instance…a tattoo? Yes! Just the thing!"
Anwar Hussein/WireImage
Prince Harry at Cirencester Park Polo Club on August 5, 2012
After deciding his foot would be the perfect spot to get the country of Botswana — the African nation that Harry has called his "second home" — permanently inked, he let his friends know the plan.
"I went to find Billy the Rock to tell him where we were going," Harry wrote. "He smiled. No way. My mates backed him up. Absolutely not. In fact, they promised to physically stop me. I was not going to get a tattoo, they said, not on their watch, least of all a foot tattoo of Botswana."
"They promised to hold me down, knock me out, whatever it took. A tattoo is permanent, it's forever!" he continued. "Their arguments and threats are one of my last clear memories from that evening. I gave in. The tattoo could wait till the next day."
Instead, the group continued their partying at a club before arriving back at their suite with some women they had met, and a game of strip pool ensued — the photos of which hit the tabloids the following day.
DANIEL SORABJI/AFP via Getty
Prince Harry on the cover of newspapers in 2012
"These photos would never go away. They were permanent. They'd make a foot tattoo of Botswana look like a splodge of Indian ink," Harry wrote in Spare.
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While Prince Harry doesn't have any known tattoos, he did visit a tattoo parlor in New York City and pretended to get inked (on his neck!) for a skit with Jelly Roll. The video was filmed to promote the 2025 Invictus Games.
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