Louis Tomlinson grimaces as he gets matching tattoo with X Factor pal Robbie Williams
That's gotta hurt!
Author: Emma DoddsPublished 28th Sep 2018 Last updated 28th Sep 2018
Former Take That star Robbie Williams and One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson have struck up quite the friendship during their tenure as judges on the new series of The X Factor. The pair, who have previously worked together on Soccer Aid, have formed a serious bromance during the last few weeks whilst judging hopefuls alongside Robbie's wife Ayda Williams and Simon Cowell.
Now, the 44-year-old dad-of-three and the 26-year-old One Direction star have cemented their new connection in one of the most permanent ways possible - by getting matching tattoos. But not only that - they've actually inked them onto each other themselves!
Swipe through to see which acts on The X Factor 2018 you NEED to know about...
Miss Understood
Duo Miss Understood are Jeff and Stefan from London. They perform original song Juicy Fruit and, honestly, you'll be humming it for days. You'll probably end up spontaneously flossing, too. DON'T RESIST IT.
Louis Tomlinson grimaces as he gets matching tattoo with X Factor pal Robbie Williams
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Charlotte Lee
17-year-old student Charlotte bonds with Louis Tomlinson over their hometown of Doncaster, but is her cover of P!nk's What About Us enough to win over Robbie, Ayda and Simon?
Miss Understood
Duo Miss Understood are Jeff and Stefan from London. They perform original song Juicy Fruit and, honestly, you'll be humming it for days. You'll probably end up spontaneously flossing, too. DON'T RESIST IT.
Andy Hofton
Andy's a Customer Sales Advisor from Macclesfield and, yep, he's a Robbie Williams superfan. After Simon puts a stop to his original track Castle of Love, Andy joins Robbie on stage for a special duet. We'll give you one guess which song they performed.
Ross Alexander
Put it this way, Ross is no wallflower. That's all we're saying for now.
Molly Scott
Molly's 16 from County Durham. Hailed a 'young Christina Aguilera,' she performs James Brown's Man's World.
Janice Robinson
50-year-old Janice is from Garfield, New Jersey and you might recognise her from that 1994 Livin' Joy bop Dreamer.
Danny Tetley
Benidorm bar singer Danny first auditioned for Simon Cowell seventeen years ago on Pop Idol. After being rejected almost two decades ago, will his cover of And I'm Telling You win over the judges?
Livia & the Elementals
Move over, The Pussycat Dolls; Livia & the Elementals are here for your crown. Ahem.
Kezia Povey
Kezia might only be 15, but her cover of Callum Scott's You Are the Reason has us bawling our eyes out (for all the right reasons.)
Charlotte Lee
17-year-old student Charlotte bonds with Louis Tomlinson over their hometown of Doncaster, but is her cover of P!nk's What About Us enough to win over Robbie, Ayda and Simon?
Miss Understood
Duo Miss Understood are Jeff and Stefan from London. They perform original song Juicy Fruit and, honestly, you'll be humming it for days. You'll probably end up spontaneously flossing, too. DON'T RESIST IT.
Andy Hofton
Andy's a Customer Sales Advisor from Macclesfield and, yep, he's a Robbie Williams superfan. After Simon puts a stop to his original track Castle of Love, Andy joins Robbie on stage for a special duet. We'll give you one guess which song they performed.
Ross Alexander
Put it this way, Ross is no wallflower. That's all we're saying for now.
Molly Scott
Molly's 16 from County Durham. Hailed a 'young Christina Aguilera,' she performs James Brown's Man's World.
Janice Robinson
50-year-old Janice is from Garfield, New Jersey and you might recognise her from that 1994 Livin' Joy bop Dreamer.
Danny Tetley
Benidorm bar singer Danny first auditioned for Simon Cowell seventeen years ago on Pop Idol. After being rejected almost two decades ago, will his cover of And I'm Telling You win over the judges?
Livia & the Elementals
Move over, The Pussycat Dolls; Livia & the Elementals are here for your crown. Ahem.
Kezia Povey
Kezia might only be 15, but her cover of Callum Scott's You Are the Reason has us bawling our eyes out (for all the right reasons.)
Charlotte Lee
17-year-old student Charlotte bonds with Louis Tomlinson over their hometown of Doncaster, but is her cover of P!nk's What About Us enough to win over Robbie, Ayda and Simon?
A new vlog on Robbie's YouTube page shows the pair having the ink done - and whilst Robbie is extremely happy with how his X, inked by Louis, has turned out, Robbie isn't exactly as steady-handed as Louis.
The clip, filmed by Robbie's wife Ayda, shows Louis apologising to Robbie in advance with Robbie saying, "It's all good. Whatever it turns out like I'm not bothered."
Louis was able to ink a clean X onto Robbie's arm, but when the time came to swap places, Robbie could be heard shouting, "Oh! I don't know what happened there," before yelling that he'd screwed it up and apologising, as Louis admitted, "Well... none of my tattoos are nice, but that by far is the craziest."
Oops!
NOW WATCH: All the winners of The X Factor to date
Even though they're clearly getting on very well in their personal lives, the competition on-screen is hotting up as they have been given their categories on The X Factor.
As Robbie mentors the groups, Louis has been given the boys, Simon will work with the girls and Ayda is looking after the overs.