Shawn Mendes and his mother Karen have something in common – matching tattoos! The mother-son duo recently inked tiny elephants on the inside of their fingers.

“I was trying to convince her to get a tattoo for a while,” Shawn explained to GQ. And after proposing hundreds of ideas to his mom, the singer finally named something they both could agree on. “This is really the only thing that she would do because she’s obsessed with elephants.” He went on to note that he, too, has an affinity for the large creatures. “They remember family and friends. They’re very humanly.”

Shawn’s new ink is the Pickering native’s third piece of body art. He gave fans a sneak peek of his shoulder tattoo in the video for his track “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” earlier this year. While speaking with Teen Vogue, Shawn explained, “I got [the tattoo] when I was in Oslo on tour; I really wanted something to remember this time of my life.” That ambiguous yet beautiful artwork depicts a lightbulb with roots and a coloured flower inside.

His first tattoo, however, has a much more significant meaning. The 19-year-old has a guitar, decorated with Toronto’s skyline, on his forearm; clearly a way for the singer to never forget his roots. Ever since then, the Teen Choice Award winner has been eager to grow his collection of body art – even going as far as recruiting fans to draw art for him! Back in May, he took to Twitter with a request, “If one of [sic] you can create a really cool design with the illuminate theme or whatever really & I love it I will definitely get it tattooed.”