Alysa Liu tattoo made its first red carpet appearance at the 2026 ESPY Awards in New York City, where the 20-year-old figure skater arrived in an open-back Louis Vuitton gown. The dress nearly fully exposed the lower-back piece she had kept out of view before July 15.
At 18, Liu got the tattoo and later described it as her only ink. She also said the design came from her own friend, which makes this reveal less like a standard style choice and more like a personal credit roll finally moving into public view.
Louis Vuitton and the Koch Theater
The gown did the work of a red carpet reveal without trying too hard: a halter-style cut, an open back, and enough exposure to show the tattoo almost in full. Liu paired it with a dual-sided rosary-inspired necklace, her trademark smiley piercing, and her signature halo hair in a casual yet super-polished updo.
The setting sharpened the moment. The 2026 ESPY Awards took place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which gave the look a formal frame rather than a street-style one. In that environment, a small piece of body art reads differently; it becomes part of the awards-ceremony presentation, not just a private accessory.
Teen Vogue and the Design
Liu had already told Teen Vogue that the tattoo is a symmetrical design in a cybersigilism-style. She said it is a matching tattoo with her best friend and that it includes bat wings, a rose, and infinity signs. That combination explains why the image feels more engineered than spontaneous: symmetry and repeated symbols usually signal a design meant to be read as a pair, not a standalone flourish.
That public backstory matters because fans had known the tattoo existed for a while, but it had never made a red carpet appearance before the ESPYs. Lower-back tattoos once belonged to the 2000s, and Gen Z, including Liu, has helped push the look back into circulation without the old baggage attached to it.
Best Breakthrough Athlete
On July 15, Liu attended the 2026 ESPY Awards to receive the trophy for Best Breakthrough Athlete, so the tattoo reveal landed inside a much larger public moment. The result is straightforward: she did not just wear a dress that happened to show ink; she used an awards-night appearance to present the only tattoo she has said she owns.
What remains unresolved is the full visual of the design outside the fragments Liu has already described. The first red carpet look gave enough to identify the lower-back placement, the symmetry, and the motifs, but not every line in the piece. For readers tracking the style shift, that partial reveal is the point: the tattoo has moved from private knowledge to awards-stage visibility, and Liu chose a look that let the back of the gown do the unveiling.
