Angelina Jolie Shows Off Giant Back Tattoos in a Backless LBD

Angelina Jolie just gave new meaning to the phrase ‘business in the front, party in the back,’ with a bold backless LBD that put her large back tattoos on full display.

Appearing at the 20th Rome Film Festival on October 18 to promote her film Couture, Jolie opted for a chic, simply black dress from the Alberta Ferretti FW25 collection. From the front, the dress is a simple mini column dress with draped cape sleeves. However, the back of the dress features a giant teardrop cutout—the perfect shape, as it turns out, for Jolie’s back tattoos.

Jolie’s elaborate body art dates back to 2004. On her lower back, she has the tattoo of a Bengal tiger, while her upper back is covered by various pieces of art: a Buddhist spell in honor of her son Maddox, a representation of the four continents and the elements of earth, water, air and fire, and a Clash-inspired tattoo that reads “Know your rights.”

This isn’t the first time Jolie has selected pieces of clothing that show off her body art. In August 2024, for instance, the opted for another simply LBD with a deep scoop back while at the Venice Film Festival. A few months earlier, she debuted a new bird chest tattoo while on the red carpet in a plunging teal gown.

For Jolie, tattoos are a vital means of self-expression. “It was one of many things I did in my life that was separate from film and being on camera—that was me and not a character,” she told Backstage of her twenty-plus tattoos in February. “So I wasn’t just staying a blank slate, even literally. To have a self is very important when a lot of your job is to transform into other selves.”