Orlando Bloom, at the recent premiere of his new film “Bucking Bastard” at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14th, shared a funny story about how his six-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove, whom he co-parents with ex-wife Katy Perry, got a temporary tattoo in the style of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” According to the actor, the girl had no idea what she was putting on her skin – and perhaps that’s the charm of children’s tattoo culture, which is increasingly becoming a part of family leisure.
How the Pirate Tattoo Appeared
According to Bloom, the family was on summer vacation in France, where at a local market, the girl “went through the whole process” – meaning she independently chose and tried on a temporary design. As a result, Daisy’s forearm ended up with a black and white Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp in the film franchise, with a sword in hand. “She said, ‘I want this one,'” recalled the 49-year-old actor. “But she’d never seen the movie. She doesn’t know anything about it. So I just said, ‘Okay.'” It’s noteworthy that Bloom himself played William Turner in this franchise, meaning his character literally “coexists” with what now adorns his daughter’s arm.
Tattoo Culture in the Family: Context and Trend
The episode with Daisy is not just a domestic family story, but an illustrative snapshot of how tattoo culture has ceased to be exclusively an adult and subcultural phenomenon and has permeated children’s everyday lives. Temporary tattoos are today one of the most accessible ways for a child to “try on” an image from a favorite movie or cartoon without pain and without commitment. For parents, it’s a way to support their child’s interest in pop culture, and for the child themselves, it’s a way to identify with a character, even if they don’t yet understand the full depth of the plot. This is how Daisy “fell in love” with Sparrow: not through the story, but through the visual image she liked at the market.
At the same time, Bloom admitted that he is in no hurry to show his daughter the film. “I don’t know,” he said. “She’s only six.” This is a typical dilemma for parents whose children are growing up in a world where tattoos and pirate sagas have become part of the visual landscape. The actor himself faced a similar situation almost ten years ago when he decided to show his then six-year-old son Flynn, his son from ex-wife Miranda Kerr, the first “Pirates” before school.
Memories of Flynn and the “Ocean” Stunt
In 2017, on The Jimmy Fallon Show, Bloom recounted how he cautiously played the movie on a small TV, not a big screen, and how scared he was when the child reacted “a little displeased.” “I thought, ‘Wait! I should have talked to a child psychologist first. What am I doing? This is a bad idea!’ And then he loved it,” he recalled. Flynn was particularly impressed by his father’s stunts, including the scene where Bloom and Depp walk on the ocean floor with a boat overhead. “He asked, ‘So how long can you hold your breath underwater? Did you really do that?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, man! Forever! I can walk from one side of the ocean to the other.’ And he still believes it,” Bloom smiled.
Today, with Daisy already sporting a “pirate” tattoo, the question of when exactly to show her the franchise remains open. But the very fact that the child chose an image from a world where her father is one of the main characters makes this story truly heartwarming. For tattoo culture, it’s also a reminder: a temporary design is not just about adult self-expression, but also about family memories that can start at a market in France and with a black and white Sparrow on a child’s forearm.
Recall that in July, Bloom confirmed his relationship with model Luisa Lemmel, and his eldest son Flynn is already 15 years old. So, in the actor’s family, the tattoo legacy of “Pirates” is now literally passed down from generation to generation – first through the screen, and now through the skin.