While eating tangerines, of all things, the fan stumbled upon the possible origin of the shape and appearance of Nami’s tattoo.
The tattoo on Nami’s left arm is one of her trademarks. It’s not just a tribute to her homeland; it also seems to be directly inspired by mandarins—at least according to a fan who happened to make an interesting discovery while eating the fruit.
Nami’s Tattoo in the Canon: A Tribute to Genzo and Bellemere
As nearly every One Piece fan should know, the tattoo originally belonged to the Arlong Pirates and was on Nami’s left arm. She had the tattoo inked out of anger and despair after Arlong betrayed her during their deal to ransom the Cocoyasi Village. The Arlong Arc was already covered in the first season of Netflix’s live-action series, and here you can watch a brief recap of the events from the first season:
After the events of the Arlong Arc and her joining the Straw Hat Pirates, the passionate navigator got a new tattoo—this time as a tribute to her hometown and the two people who saved her life as a child: Genzo and Bellemere. The curved X-shape of the tattoo is based on the windmill on Genzo’s hat, while the top loop of the tattoo depicts a mandarin orange with a protruding leaf—that’s the official explanation in the One Piece manga and anime.
A One Piece fan has discovered yet another cool design detail
One Piece fan and Redditor ITisHiren seems to have found yet another design detail in Nami’s tattoo—and he did so while eating the fruit it represents: mandarins. In a Reddit post, he shared his theory that Nami’s tattoo depicts two overlapping mandarin peels—specifically, when peeled in a certain way. The user also shared a photo of his freshly peeled fruit to illustrate his point. In the pictures, the peels are peeled in one piece and then laid out flat—the shape closely resembles the curving lines of Nami’s tattoo.
The part with the circular bulge at the beginning of the tattoo could also be inspired by the top and bottom of the mandarin orange. Whether Eiichiro Oda got the idea for Nami’s tattoo design from looking at mandarin peels remains unclear. Nevertheless, this discovery is an interesting, additional detail about Nami’s character and her love for mandarins—even if this detail isn’t strictly part of the canon.
How do you peel your mandarins, and which other characters’ trademarks have stuck with you the most?
