Prince Harry once planned to get a tattoo during a 2012 Las Vegas holiday, but his friends threatened to physically stop him. The prince, now living in Montecito, California, recounted the incident in his 2023 memoir Spare.
The Las Vegas Trip
Harry described checking into a suite with friends and dining like "kings" at a steakhouse on their first evening. The next day, after breakfast and Bloody Marys, they headed to a pool party. After a day of drinking, Harry said he was "in rough shape, and filling up with... ideas."
He decided he needed something to commemorate the trip, settling on a tattoo of Botswana, a nation he calls his "second home," on his foot.
Friends' Threats
When Harry told his friend Billy the Rock about his plan, Billy smiled and said "No way." His other friends backed him up, promising to physically stop him. They said they would "hold me down, knock me out, whatever it took." Harry gave in, noting that a tattoo is permanent.
Aftermath
Instead of getting the tattoo, the group went to a nightclub and later returned to their suite with women, where a game of strip pool allegedly took place. Photos surfaced on TMZ, leading to public scrutiny.
Harry later said, "At the end of the day I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down." He added, "It was probably a classic example of me probably being too much Army and not enough prince."
