Kanye's New Tattoo Has An Interesting Meaning

If you watched the VMAs on Sunday night, there's no way you missed 2015 Video Vanguard honoree Kanye West in all his glory. I was totally expecting West to use his time to put on a flashy performance, but instead he gave a speech filled with humility and emotion — and an unexpected apology for interrupting Taylor Swift on a very different VMA stage in 2009. And while he was busy dancing in the audience like an embarrassing dad, talking on stage (aka announcing his 2020 run for presidency), and hugging wife Kim Kardashian, you might have noticed something interesting: West's new tattoo on his forearm.

At first glance, it's kind of confusing —just a random symbol, maybe? Being that my allotted time for thinking about Kanye West each day is usually spent looking at pictures of him smiling at his ice cream, I haven't given too much thought to his tattoos... and especially not enough thought to realize if one is brand new or not. But it seems to have appeared on his skin relatively recently, and the VMAs were a perfect opportunity for him to show off his new ink. So what does it all mean? If nothing else, it's definitely related to West's upcoming album, Swish .

In case you missed it, here it is:

Does that symbol look familiar to you? It should. When West first announced his new album back in March — back when it was still called So Help Me God — he tweeted out a photo of what fans assumed to be the album cover, and the tattoo appeared on his arm sometime shortly after the image was posted.

And even though it clearly has something to do with his album, the symbol has to mean something, right? This is where the detective work comes in. Kardashian shared the same image of the symbol on Instagram at the same time, claiming that it was the artwork for West's single, "All Day"... and also revealing that it's a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

This has led to a lot of random fan theories, including one where the tie-in to the Virgin Mary could be referencing West's late mother, Donda, because "Mary was the mother of Jesus ... [and] Donda was the mother of Yeezus." It makes sense, especially when you consider Kanye Logic. It's not always easy to decode where this guy is coming from, but I wouldn't be surprised if this theory was actually pretty accurate.

Regardless of what his tattoo really means, I think we'll have the answers soon. West might love to be mysterious, but if the symbol actually is album artwork, all will be explained eventually. And that means it's time for my next question: When the hell is he actually going to release this album?!