Shemar Moore Explains His Big Barack Obama Tattoo and Reveals the One He Still Can’t Wait to Get (Exclusive)

Shemar Moore’s tattoos have a narrative to inform. 

The S.W.A.T. star, 54, who typically reveals off his ink within the type of shirtless images on Instagram, tells PEOPLE that there’s extra to them than meets the attention. 

Over the years, Moore shares, he has amassed six tattoos, certainly one of which incorporates a picture of the previous President Barack Obama on his again. Though for Moore, the selection was “not about politics.”

“It is [the] first Black president, but what is Barack Obama? He’s half Black, half white,” Moore, who’s biracial, explains. “He lived in Hawaii. I lived in Hawaii. I have roots in Hawaii. He was raised by the white side of him. I was raised by the white side, but stayed true to the Black side, honored the Black side.”

The tattoo, which runs throughout the highest of his again, reads “Carpe Diem” and inside the letters of the phrase there are additionally photographs of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

‘“Carpe Diem’ means Seize The Day,” Moore wrote on X, previously often known as Twitter, in 2012 when he first received the ink. “Obama, MLK, Malcolm X are in the letters. My Heroes!”

Beyond the picture on his again, Moore additionally shared the that means behind his first tattoo: a lion etched on his shoulder. 

“I have a lion tattoo because my mother and I were in Ghana and we went on safari,” he recalls of his mother, Marilyn Moore, who died in 2020. “I was four and I fell in love with the big cat. I said ‘Mommy, the big cat, mommy, the big cat,’ which was the lion. And then as I got older, I was enamored by lions and got to understand lions. And I liked the king lion because I’m a king for myself and for those I love.”

Speaking of these he loves, Moore says he already has at the very least one concept for an additional tattoo so as to add to his assortment. 

“I want to get a Frankie tattoo,” he says of his virtually two-year-old daughter, Frankie Melelina Kapule Moore, whom he welcomed with girlfriend Jesiree Dizon in January 2023. 

While he is aware of what he needs, he says he plans to carry off due to his function on S.W.A.T. .

“My makeup artist’s got to cover stuff up so I’m going to wait a little bit because it takes too long,” he says. “But I’m going to figure out something for my daughter.”

The dad of 1 has beforehand opened up about his little woman, telling PEOPLE beforehand, “She’s my little miracle. The remainder of my life, it is for her.”

And whereas Moore tells PEOPLE that his girlfriend Dizon is his “partner in crime,” he doesn’t see marriage of their future. 

“To me, it’s just like tomorrow’s not guaranteed, but Jesiree, I’ll give you everything I got today and tomorrow,” he explains. “She is my accomplice. She is the mom of Frankie. Frankie has a dope-ass mama, and I’m going to attempt to be a dope-ass daddy. And we going to try this till God calls my identify.”