Jungkook's ARMY tattoo

Of all the tattoos Jungkook has on his right hand, one has drawn special attention from the start. Across his knuckles, in large letters, it reads ARMY, and it isn't just any one of his tattoos, Jungkook later revealed it was actually his very first.

Fans first noticed it in September 2019, when BTS showed up at the airport after their official break. Jungkook came back with tattoos on his right hand, and the word ARMY was almost impossible to miss. In the years that followed, the tattoo became part of a much bigger sleeve, but for a long time there was no detailed explanation from him about what the individual symbols actually meant.

So fans started piecing together their own story. One theory in particular became popular: that the letters ARMY also hid the members' names. Without the crossbar, A looks like an upside-down V, R and M together spell RM, and M and Y could be linked to Min Yoongi. A small letter J above the M further fed the idea that the design also hid the other members whose names start with that letter.

The theory was tidy enough that it spread for years as the accepted explanation for the tattoo. The only problem is Jungkook never confirmed it. When he finally gave a kind of tattoo tour during a Weverse Live in February 2023, he gave a much simpler explanation for the J: it's part of his initials, JK. He didn't present the other letter combinations ARMY had found as hidden meanings in the design.

On one point, though, there's no ambiguity at all. Jungkook confirmed ARMY was his first tattoo and explained why he got it somewhere so visible. ARMY is something he's proud of, so it didn't make sense to him to put that word somewhere it wouldn't be seen. He even admitted the lettering's original look didn't fully satisfy him, since it came out simpler than he'd pictured, so he added to the design later.

That's how a small crown ended up above the letter A. And the explanation there is simpler than some of the theories that circulated online for years too, since ARMY starts with the letter A, Jungkook decided to put a crown right above it.

ARMY isn't the only BTS and fandom reference on his hand. There's also a purple heart and the official ARMY symbol, which he said during the same live carry the same meaning tied to his love and pride for the fans. On his hand there's also 0613, the date June 13, 2013, the day BTS debuted.

What's interesting is how much meaning a single tattoo picked up over the years, thanks largely to the fans themselves. Jungkook's explanation showed that not every hidden message ARMY found in the lettering was intentional, but the basic idea turned out to be much simpler: he chose the word ARMY for his first tattoo and deliberately put it somewhere everyone would be able to see it.

Maybe that's exactly why it doesn't need a more complicated code.