Vanessa Bryant pays tribute to Kobe and Gianna with two new tattoos

Tattoos feature ‘sweet messages’ from her late husband and daughter

Vanessa Bryant has paid tribute to her late husband, Kobe Bryant, and daughter, Gianna, with two new tattoos.

On Wednesday, the 38-year-old shared several videos on Instagram showing herself getting tattooed by Nikko Hurtado, an artist based in Los Angeles.

The first video showed Vanessa getting a tattoo on her wrist with the words “My Gigi” and a love heart emoji written across the clip.

In the caption for the post, she wrote: “Shoutout to @nikkohurtado for coming over and helping me get my Gigi's sweet message transferred on me #throwbacktoFebruary.”

In a separate video, Nikko could be seen working on another piece in a line along Vanessa’s shoulder and neck, which she explained was a message from Kobe.

“I wanted my boo boo's @kobebryant sweet message transferred on me. @nikkohurtado came through for me. Thank you! #inked,” she wrote in the caption. Vanessa has not yet revealed exactly what the tattoos say.

Nikko later reposted the videos to his own Instagram account and thanked Vanessa for allowing him to tattoo her.

“Truly honoured to give you something to keep with you my friend,” he wrote.

The posts come five months after NBA legend Kobe, and 13-year-old Gianna, died in a helicopter crash on 26 January in Calabasas, California.

Kobe and Gianna were among nine victims who died in the crash. The incident also claimed the lives of baseball coach John Altobelli, 56, his wife Keri and daughter Alyssa.

Basketball coach Christina Mauser was also among those lost in the tragic accident, while the pilot was identified as 50-year-old Ara Zobayan. Sarah Chester and her daughter Payton were the final two victims of the helicopter crash to be named.

Earlier this year, Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis also received tattoos to honour their friend and fellow NBA player, both choosing an image of a snake in reference to Kobe's “Black Mamba” nickname.

“All my tats are something special,” Davis told The Athletic. “I don’t have any meaningless tats, so knowing how much Kobe meant to me, I felt like for me, the impact that he had on my life and my basketball career, I felt like it was only right for me to get a tattoo to remember him.”

Vanessa regularly posts tributes to Kobe and Gianna on Instagram. Most recently, she celebrated what would have been her daughter’s eighth-grade graduation

“Congratulations on your 8th grade graduation Gigi. I love you forever and always. I’m so proud of you, Mommy #classof2020,” Vanessa wrote alongside a photo of a diploma from Harbor Day School covered in white flowers.