When Lady Gaga and her fiancé, Christian Carino, broke up during awards season, no one could have imagined how weird things would get.
From stalker-y reports to angry fans, this whole breakup has been a mess.
And now, there’s an added layer to it: Carino’s new tattoo.
Gaga and Carino dated for two years
Lady Gaga and Christian Carino knew each other way before they started dating — he’s her manager.
They were quietly engaged in 2017. I say quietly because neither actually ever confirmed their engagement in an official capacity.
But Gaga defo had a ring on her finger
You can see the massive ring in a number of her Instagram posts.
Fans didn’t get confirmation of their engagement until October 2018, when Gaga referred to Carino as her fiancé in an acceptance speech.
They broke up in February
Fans noticed that she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring at the 2019 Grammys, which obviously sent the rumor mill into overdrive.
Their breakup was confirmed at the end of February 2019.
Gaga hasn’t said much about the split
Which isn’t surprising. She is notoriously dedicated to her craft, and has never been one to comment on gossip.
In her Netflix documentary, Five Foot Two , Gaga even commented on how hard relationships are for her, because of that devotion to her work.
And some fans think their breakup is due to Gaga’s bond with Bradley Cooper
However, out of the mouth of Gaga herself:
“Yes, people saw love. And guess what? That’s what we wanted you to see!” She told Jimmy Kimmel.
She also said: “I’m an artist, and I guess we did a good job, and fooled ya!”
Bradley is involved with the mother of his child, Irina Shayk. Time to stop speculating, internet.
There’s no trace of Carino on her Instagram
At least, from what I can tell.
It could be that she deleted all of her pictures with him, or if he never featured on her Instagram in the first place.
Not so for Carino
His Instagram, however, is another story.
While some people delete all traces of their past relationships from social media, Carino has left every single Instagram post of he and Gaga up.
His Instagram is chock full of Gaga photos…and tattoo progress
That’s what we’re going to focus on, here, because it’s pretty key to understanding what all the drama is about.
This is Carino’s first part of his two-part tattoo. Here, he captioned the photo, “thank you, bang bang.”
This was to credit the tattoo artist, @bangbangnyc. Nothing amiss here.
He recently posted a video of his new tattoo, done post-breakup
He captioned it: ““in life find a friend that is like a mirror and a shadow. mirrors don’t lie… and shadows never leave.” love you, @bangbangnyc.”
Again, nothing amiss! He’s thanking his friend for the tattoo.
(He could also thank @elmohood , whose work he “borrowed” to have tattooed on him.)
Naturally, there’s a lot to investigate here
It’s easy to see why fans think this tattoo is about Gaga.
The King of Hearts is ripping his own heart out to give to the Queen, who is reaching for it.
Fans were quick to jump to conclusions.
That symbolism was NOT lost on fans
A lot of people (and I mean a lot) assumed that his tattoo was inspired by Gaga’s song, “Poker Face.”
I’m inclined to believe he just liked @elmohood’s art, but maybe that’s just me?
The comments got nasty
This is one of the few safe-for-work comments I could find, so that should tell you how nasty Gaga’s “fans” are being.
Pretty sure Gaga doesn’t want her fans bullying the people she knows.
A few assumed this was a cover-up of his Gaga tattoo
But when they figured out that this was the wrong arm, they continued to speculate that this tattoo might still be about Gaga.
Even then, no one was disagreeing! It seems like there’s a general consensus that the tattoo is about Gaga.
But the real Gaga fans stepped up to the plate
In breakups, there really isn’t a winner (despite what rom-coms may tell you).
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Carino and Gaga are their own people, and their relationship was entirely their business. How they handle it is theirs, too.
Oh, and also?
Ever a fan of drama, Perez Hilton dropped in to snoop out the meanest comments to laugh at.
You know, like a really responsible, mature adult!
No one invited you, Perez.
