**Prince Harry Nearly Got His ‘Dream’ Tattoo on a Wild Las Vegas Trip, New Details Reveal**
*Published Oct. 1, 2025, 7:40 p.m. ET*
Prince Harry once came close to getting his “dream” tattoo during a wild trip to Las Vegas — a story RadarOnline.com can now reveal has resurfaced after he was recently seen taking part in a tattoo stunt at a New York parlor.
Harry, 41, recounted in his memoir *Spare* how, during a notorious 2012 trip to Nevada, he was determined to commemorate the holiday with a permanent mark of ink. Egged on by alcohol and the rush of freedom, he settled on the idea of a map of Botswana on the sole of his foot.
### A Tattoo Plan Born in Sin City
However, his friends quickly intervened, insisting that no prince should wake up with a permanent reminder of a night out in Sin City. A source close to the duke shared, “Harry genuinely wanted the tattoo — to him, it symbolized both his connection to Botswana and living in the moment. His friends, though, saw it as a bad idea and stepped in, convinced he’d regret it later.”
In *Spare*, Harry described how he debated the placement of the tattoo. The shoulder was “too visible,” the lower back “too provocative,” but the sole of his foot seemed perfect. “Layers upon layers of symbolism,” he wrote, recalling how he wandered down the Las Vegas Strip looking for a parlor with an atlas of Africa.
### Friends Put Their Foot Down
Despite his enthusiasm, his friends had other ideas. “Absolutely not,” they said, even threatening to “hold me down, knock me out, whatever it took” to stop him. In the end, Harry abandoned the plan and instead joined his entourage in a nightclub, admitting to sulking over the missed opportunity.
### Ink Fascination Resurfaces in New York
More than a decade later, Harry’s fascination with body art has not diminished. Last year, he was spotted entering East Side Ink in Manhattan alongside American country star Jelly Roll, sparking speculation he had finally gone through with the tattoo.
It later emerged, however, that the scene was staged as part of a promotional sketch for the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025. In the short film, Jelly Roll jokingly inks Harry, who pretends to be getting his first tattoo.
The prank highlighted the royal exile’s playful side but also revived memories of that infamous Vegas trip. Another insider commented, “The stunt brought back memories of Harry’s long-standing curiosity about tattoos. Even though it wasn’t real, it reminded people of that night in Las Vegas when he nearly went through with it.”
### A Dream Deferred, Not Forgotten
Harry’s 2012 weekend in Nevada is remembered more for scandalous photographs leaked from a game of strip billiards than for his unfulfilled tattoo dream. Yet his memoir underlines how seriously he had considered it at the time, describing the tattoo as a symbol of his independence.
Though he never went through with the Botswana design, Harry admitted the idea lingered. *“The tattoo could wait till the next day,”* he recalled in *Spare* — though that day has not come… yet.
https://radaronline.com/p/prince-harry-blocked-dream-tattoo-new-york-parlor/
