#17black

Harry got the 17Black tattoo around 14 August 2012. The Tattoo Artist, Kevin Paul, has spoken about it three times. In the video below that it was after he lost a lot of money gambling in Australia. Which did happen, they were in Australia April 2012 (2 months after turning 18 - Australia's legal gambling age). It was the same trip as the NZ girl kiss.... so a time. Niall said:

Like most of the stupid things we do, it seemed like it was a good idea at the time. We thought it was funny. We just thought, 'We're 18, this is the first time we've been able to spend a bit of money in weeks because we've been on the road. In all honesty, I didn't have a clue what was happening. I won £100, which seemed reasonable, then I stopped. I'll have to say, 'No comment' about the others. Let's just say it got a bit ugly and a lot of money was lost. A lot.  When management found out, we got a serious dressing-down.

If the number 17 is connected to 7 as Harry's number... Maybe, GQ theorised it was related to the James Bond betting method in Diamonds are Forever. I have watched that scene today and don't understand gambling well enough to know. To them Kevin Paul said:

I was tattooing Ed Sheeran and he said that his mate Harry wanted to get one. At that point, I thought it was just a normal friend, so he gave him my number in order to sort it out. I went around to one of Harry’s houses on a Sunday morning and, actually, he had completely different ideas to what we’d originally discussed.” So why 17 Black? “Basically, Harry lost money gambling – I think it was in Australia – and he lost it on 17 black. This was in the early days, the first few years of One Direction.

There is another quote from Kevin Paul, from when it was first seen, (the gambling quote is much later) here, via Sugarscape in 2012:

“They’re really personal to him – the reasons he had them done and stuff, so he doesn’t really want to announce what they are. I’m doing him a half sleeve which he doesn’t mind people knowing about. We’re doing that now, so over the next week or two I’m gonna draw that up, send him the pictures over and then I’ll go back down and start it up. One was something from his childhood, and another one was something really important in his life. There’s nothing on his collarbone, it’s at the top of the arm to begin the sleeve. I tattooed Ed Sheeran as well – who did a little locket on Harry’s hand, like a little padlock thing. They didn’t really have to stop because of the pain, it was all pretty small things really so didn’t take too long.”

17Black may either be the personal or family thing.

In the interview above he refers to tattoo on a sofa which refers to this photo of him getting the never going to dance again tattoo. The article has other propels gross infected tattoos mixed with photos of Harry’s

Hi! Sorry anon (and others) I'm slow on the theory/analysis/interpretation asks. I always like to dig a little till I got something I think is nice enough to share and I just ~ignore you lovely people~ till I feel like doing/having that.

Stags on walls are kinda common, and that vid of Stan dancing is taken when they were on their skitrip. As someone who has taken a bunch of ski trips in europe I can tell you dead animal heads on the wall are defo super extra common like I've been jumpscared by goats around corners before alkjdfgklja. Anyway doesn't have to be uncommon to think it's possible he got a stag tattooed because he saw a cool one on the wall during a skitrip he loved, I guess, sure it's possible. Worthy theory to be talked about? Eeeeeehhh don't think that'll happen. Here are some theories about the stag tattoo. (they're all the same I just love this one)

I know the that stag + 17 black thing is debunked (edit: link here thanks to anons in @twopoppies inbox :) ) and I don't really care about the shape of the eyes either but have that too.

For 17black these two theories make sense to me (stockholm syndrome logic'd here) and maybe both of them have to do with roulette (although the book is called 17 black and 29 red but in roulette 29's on black too & I haven't read the book so I might be talking shit here) where betting on 17 black is a bit of a legend in the roulette world to be the lucky number / falsely believed to be increasing your odds. Aaaand we can then of course put meaning into this tat by going for something along the lines of "beating the odds" "hoping to get lucky" "making it big" and such. Mweh, just a thought. Anyway some more superstition gambling / 17black reading:

i remember the day finally//beautiful stranger was released

i remember how the first time i heard it i was emotional

i remember i was emotional but i didn’t cry

i remember i didn’t cry because it felt like the first time i could relate to a song about being in love

i remember being happy that i could relate

i also remember listening to it and crying, later that day, like i do sometimes now

i remember why i cried and why i still do

i remember how i thought i was safe too, falling for you

i remember how very that day you told me that it was weighing you down

i remember how i fell, not in way i’d thought hours ago

i remember how i fell, like a weight falling on cutting off

i remember how a good song turned sad

i remember how a good memory turned sad

or maybe it was just a good feeling turning sad