James Hetfield showed off his new tattoo with an ace of spades design, etched on his middle finger.
The ink was mixed with a ashes given to Hetfield of Lemmy Kilmister, after the singer died from cancer in 2015.
"A salute to my friend and inspiration Mr. Lemmy Kilmister. Without him, there would be NO Metallica," he wrote.
The tattoo, was designed by tattoo artist Corey Miller, for Lemmy as "he is still able to fly the bird at the world".
Lemmy, with his band Motorhead were pioneers of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, releasing the iconic Ace of Spades.
"My vision of him was as a statue of a man that was immortal. When he passed it scared me, like, 'where's our captain now?'. He's been a godfather to us. There's no doubt that without him there wouldn't be a Metallica. When he was around, it just felt like things were going to be OK," Hetfield said.