'Devastated' Fan Finds Unique Way to Honor Matthew Perry's Memory Forever

An avid Friends fan has marked the death of Matthew Perry by getting a tattoo of the actor on his arm.

Actor and TikTok star Alex David, from London in the U.K., told Newsweek he was left "genuinely devastated" following the death of the much-loved 54-year-old star. Perry was known to millions for playing Chandler Bing on the smash-hit sitcom from 1994 to 2004.

"I watched Matthew Perry growing up, and he was a big role model for me in terms of what he did to help people and as an actor," David said. "I got into Friends when I was younger. I think I have probably watched it all the way through about five times."

Tributes have been flooding in for Perry after he died at his Los Angeles home on Saturday. A raft of co-stars have already shared their heartbreak over his loss, while many fans took to social media to share their favorite Perry moment on Friends.

David decided to go one step further, though. "I wanted something to remember him by," he said. He enlisted the services of Emma Jacobs from Opera Luna Tattoo in Chalfont St. Peter, Gerrards Cross in England, to create the tattoo, which took around 90 minutes to complete.

The resulting design features Perry, as Chandler, in one of the show's iconic sweater vests, smoking a cigarette. It is based on a scene from the third episode of the show's first season, "The One with the Thumb," in which Chandler picks up his old smoking habit while helping Joey practice a scene.

David decided to include two of Perry's animal cast-mates in the design: the chick and the duck who lived in Joey and Chandler's apartment for several seasons of the show.

"That image of him in the vest smoking is a really famous one of Chandler Bing," David said. "And, of course, he had a pet duck and chick, so I had to get them following him, and it's just iconic and links to the character."

It is a character that struck a chord with David and many other fans. He said that "people connected with him because we saw ourselves in the character."

"People fell in love with his sarcasm and his wit, and also how bad he was with women on the show," he said. "But also Perry was just a good person."

David has several tattoos and posts regularly to TikTok about his body art. He has been blown away by the response to this latest inking, though.

"What a lovely gesture," one user wrote, while a second commented: "I honestly feel like he didn't know how much people loved him."

A third TikTok user added, "What an amazing idea i'm going to do something like this," with a fourth writing: "I want to do it but I can't, I will cry every time I see the tattoo."

Responding to fellow fans, David said that Perry had a great impact on his life, adding, "he got me through a lot of bad days."

At the time of writing, his video under the username @alex_david44 has been watched over 800,000 times within a day. "It's amazing," David said. "It just shows what an impact he had on the whole world."

Despite this being a hard time for fans of Perry the world over, David said that he hopes those watching the video will get the same "warm feeling" the actor's work generated inside him. "I hope it will make them remember Chandler Bing and all the good things Perry did for everyone," David added.