Demi Lovato Flashes Flying Birds Forearm Tattoo While Performing

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Hollywood loves a good comeback story, and our latest example is Demi Lovato. In November 2012, she added a sleeve-like flying birds tattoo to her right forearm.

The twelve black birds with a little swirl behind them also appear on the cover of her 2013 self-help book titled Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year. Symbolizing freedom, they were inked by celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D

Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year at Amazon

Demi Lovato's Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year

The singer/actress has been pretty vocal about her journey toward self-love, and — as we recently discovered — she backs up her talk with action. Open and transparent about her relationship with substances for years, in an interview with iHeartRadio she later connected the 12 birds to the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step recovery program.

“I love the freedom that birds represent and I didn’t specifically have a huge reason why I got 12 of them,” she told the streaming radio platform.

“But one day, one of my friends that I was at Sober Living, I was living in her Sober Living house, and they asked, ‘So why’d you get … How many did you get?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t mean to do that.’ But it’s like, it was kind of like a God thing, like I worked the 12 steps, so as I got that while I was in Sober Living, apparently it was really meant to be.”

With a tattoo of flying birds on her right forearm, Demi Lovato performs in front of a live audienceWith a tattoo of flying birds on her right forearm, Demi Lovato performs in front of a live audience at ABC studios for Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Los Angeles on September 1, 2015

A friend helped connect Demi with Kat Von D. “I wanted more tattoos and I’d never done anything big, and it was very impulsive of me, like the night that I got it. Literally, I had a friend who had a friend that worked with Kat Von D. And so, literally at like 4:00 p.m. my friend hits up her friend, and that guy was out of town but Kat was in town. And so I was like, ‘Let’s get a tattoo,’ which by the way, people like book Kat way in advance! But it was so impulsive, so it was meant to be.”

Demi was spotted giving herself a pep talk prior to taking the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards.

A sharp-eyed fan watching the event’s livestream noticed Demi changing “I am enough” to herself in anticipation of her performance. That fan caught the moment on video and uploaded it for all of Demi’s fans to see.

Demi Lovato smiles as she arrives at ABC Studios in thigh-high black boots and a multi-colored crop topDemi Lovato smiles as she arrives at ABC Studios in thigh-high black boots and a multi-colored crop top

Demi was recently spotted making an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! following that explosive VMA performance.

Demi Lovato shows off her long legs and short shorts in a pair of thigh-high black boots worn over fishnetsDemi Lovato shows off her long legs and short shorts in a pair of thigh-high black boots worn over fishnets

For her appearance on the show, Demi wore a pair of disco pants from American Apparel over fishnet stockings, paired with a rainbow-colored crop top.

Demi Lovato flaunts her forearm tattoo as she performs on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a pair of hotpants and a multi-colored crop topDemi Lovato flaunts her forearm tattoo as she performs on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a pair of hotpants and a multi-colored crop top

The singer finished off her vampy stage look with knee-high suede boots. If you’re digging thigh-high boots, here are some of our picks from Nordstrom:

Carvela Want Leather Over The Knee Boots in Black, $334

Carvela Want Leather Over The Knee Boots in Black

Gabor Willow Medium Leg Suede Long Boots in Black, £150

Gabor Willow Medium Leg Womens Suede Long Boots in Black

Saint Laurent Suede Over-the-Knee Boots, $1,495

Saint Laurent Suede Over the Knee Boots

Credit: Michael Wright / WENN