Johnny decorates his body with tattoos and habitually wears a collection of ornaments and jewelry that are as unique and personal as a signature. For those trying to learn to “read Johnny,” here is a guide to his visible body art.

Tattoos. This list of Johnny’s known tattoos was compiled by Irene, the Zone’s former webmistress. To the best of our knowledge, Johnny’s most recent tattoo is the one inked on his right forearm in celebration of his son Jack. Sharp-eyed viewers will note that this tattoo of a bird in flight and the name “JACK” is not identical to Captain Jack Sparrow’s tattoo in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Captain Jack’s bird flies away from his body: Johnny’s tattoo reverses that direction. He had the image flipped and moved so that the bird would be flying toward him, because it represents his son Jack — and, as Johnny told an interviewer in spring 2004, “You always want him coming back to you.”

The tattoos are not given in chronological order; some dates are impossible to determine. Others — like the “Winona Forever” tattoo that morphed into “Wino Forever” after Johnny and Winona Ryder called off their engagement in 1993 — are so (in)famous that they have become part of pop culture. “It’s the kind of thing you do on the spur of the moment,” Johnny told Playboy’s Bernard Weinraub in 2004. “Then you break up, but it’s still there. [. . .] I changed it to WINO FOREVER, which is actually a bit more accurate.”

People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue claims that Johnny has twelve tattoos, but does not identify them. Perhaps they are counting the name “Jack” and the bird in flight as two separate tattoos; Irene’s list totals eleven. The tattoos include:

(1) WINO FOREVER on Johnny’s right bicep
(2) Portrait of the head of a Native American on Johnny’s right bicep
(3) Symbol from THE BRAVE on the inside of Johnny’s right forearm
(4) Inverted triangle on Johnny’s left bicep
(5) Heart engraved with “BETTY SUE” on Johnny’s left bicep—this tattoo honors Johnny’s mother, Betty Sue Palmer
(6) Three small rectangles on Johnny’s right index finger. In many movie roles, Johnny will wear a large ring to cover this tattoo
(7) The number 3, on Johnny’s left hand, between his thumb and index finger
(8) A skull and crossbones with the inscription “DEATH IS CERTAIN,” on Johnny’s lower right leg, on the outside
(9) A small unknown symbol on the inside of Johnny’s right ankle.
(10) The inscription LILY-ROSE in ornate lettering, over Johnny’s heart. This tattoo honors Johnny’s daughter. It is visible at times during the island sequence in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. From some angles, it looks as if the name reads “Lilly-Rose,” but if it does, the tattoo has a typo! Mlle. Depp’s name is spelled Lily-Rose.
(11) The inscription JACK and a bird in flight, on Johnny’s right forearm, to honor his son Jack.

There may, of course, be other tattoos the camera has never captured, and new additions to the Johnny Depp traveling body art exhibition may appear at any time. Excellent pictures of Johnny’s tattoos are available on-line at Jonathan Shaw’s Fun City Tattoo site and also at the Vanishing Tattoo site.

Johnny’s Signature Pieces. Necklaces, rings, wrist gear — here’s a brief guide to Johnny’s favorite adornments.

What is hanging around his neck? Johnny wears a tiger tooth on a black leather cord; a silver dog tag etched with the portrait of Che Guevara; a silver figure of Lord Ganesh, the Hindu deity considered “the remover of obstacles,” on a black leather cord; and a longer silver chain with a shiny round medallion. People Magazine incorrectly identified this pendant as “a polished stone” in their issue of December 1, 2003; it is actually a silver medallion engraved with the name and birthdate of Johnny’s daughter, Lily-Rose.

Does Johnny have pierced ears? Yes — he has at least three piercings in his left ear, and a single piercing in his right ear. Photos from the early 90s show him wearing three small silver hoops in his left ear, and one on his right. However, his interest in earrings seemed to fade after the mid-1990s, and he stopped wearing them. We haven’t noticed him sporting earrings in any recent photographs.

Does Johnny have any other piercings? We don’t know, and he’s not telling.

Johnny wears a silver skull ring on the ring finger of each hand. The first of these, the ring on the left hand, dates from the Dead Man period; director Jim Jarmusch and Iggy Pop, who appeared in the film with Johnny, also wear them. The skull ring, like the medieval memento mori, is a constant reminder that life is brief and each moment should be lived to the fullest. When Johnny was dating Kate Moss, he wore a silver rattle ring on the ring finger of his right hand, a gift from Kate. When they broke up, Johnny replaced the rattle ring with another skull ring, similar but not identical to the ring on his left hand. The newer skull ring has the symbol from The Brave engraved on the left side panel, adding yet another strand of memory to the memento mori. The right side panel bears the number 3, and there are three rectangles on the top of the skull, corresponding to the tattoo on Johnny’s right index finger. Johnny’s newest ring is a large gold Cherokee head which he frequently wears on the index finger of his left hand. The ring honors his Cherokee ancestry and was a gift from Vanessa on Johnny’s 40th birthday.

On his left wrist, Johnny sometimes wears a silver cuff bracelet, and he has recently begun wearing a watch with a rectangular face.

On his right wrist, Johnny wears a brown leather cuff with silver buckles. This resembles the one worn by his character, Lerner, in the Oscar-winning Platoon. He also sometimes wears a blue Deadsy wristband, with or without the leather cuff. Above the cuff is a brightly-colored bracelet made of plastic heart-shaped beads in pink and yellow and green; the bracelet was made by Lily-Rose. Johnny has been wearing this bracelet at least since early 2003. In his spring 2004 appearances, he is wearing another bead bracelet as well. The new bracelet fits more snugly and is composed of cylindrical rather than heart-shaped beads, with a few specially shaped beads randomly added. This bracelet was also made by Lily-Rose. When Johnny accepted his MTV Movie award in June 2004, he spoke from the deck of a yacht in France — and the bead bracelets on his right wrist had multiplied again! Apparently Lily-Rose likes to make presents for her papa.

Another one of Johnny’s fashion signatures is the way he wears his belt: the buckle is not dead center above the zipper, but off to the left, past the left-center belt loop. The beads and silver medallion which adorned Captain Jack Sparrow’s red bandanna, Johnny now wears as a charm dangling off his right belt loop.