Chase Stokes Debuts Back Tattoo Weeks After Kelsea Ballerini Split: ‘They Will Judge Us By Our Fruit’

The ‘Outer Banks’ star shared his cryptic new ink on social media.

Chase Stokes is starting fresh with some new ink following his recent split from longtime girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini.

The Outer Banks star, 33, took to social media on Thursday (March 12) to debut a back tattoo featuring a cryptic quote about being judged. In the photo shared on his Instagram Stories, the phrase “they will judge us by our fruit” could be seen written in a delicate script font at the base of his neck.

Stokes didn’t specify how he related to the quote but he did tag Los Angeles-based tattoo artist Winterstone, writing, “My brother, thank you. LA friends, give him a shout.”

Stokes has a number of other tattoos across his body, including a playing card, dice and a heart dedicated to his mom, all on his arm. Before his split with Ballerini, the former couple also got matching tattoos dedicated to their shared star sign, Virgo.

Ballerini made the revelation during a 2023 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. She explained that she used to really “resent [her] ‘Virgo-ness’” but the couple decided to embrace their star sign.

“To me, it was like a control freak—just needing power in a lot of situations in relationships,” Ballerini shared. “He’s a Virgo too. He and I have like really allowed ourselves to love that part of ourselves and each other. Just the need to communicate well and be loyal—and planning is not a bad thing when it’s like for the right things—all those things. It’s just like a thing that kind of defines us.”

At the time, the singer joked that the pair couldn’t split because of the shared ink, saying, “Well now I spilled it on here that we have matching tattoos, so we can’t break up.”

Unfortunately, in February 2026 sources shared that the on-and-off couple had officially called it quits.

As of now, neither Stokes nor Ballerini have spoken out about the end of their relationship.