Pop singer Rihanna has been heading out solo, sparking hope that she’s kicked abusive boyfriend Chris Brown to the curb or is at least ashamed to be seen out with him, which is a start. In the past two weeks she’s been photographed out at clubs in NY and LA and was even seen getting cozy with Wilmer Valderrama at a club.

Rihanna has a charm type necklace that includes two gun pendants, which she wore out in NY last week. Now it’s come out that Rihanna had a small gun tattooed on her lower right rib. A tattoo artist she flew out to LA to do the job posted the photos of his work on his MySpace, including a picture of where he first wanted to tattoo the guns on either side of Rihanna’s chest, an idea she rejected due to her contract with Covergirl:

Rihanna, who has been laying low since her Grammy-weekend blowup with, and alleged assault by, Chris Brown, has a new gun tattooed on her body.

Rihanna, who also has “Shhh” tattooed on a finger, a Maori design on her right hand and stars behind her ear (that match stars behind Brown’s ear) brought tattoo artist Bang Bang out to LA for her latest ink.

He posted some photos and commentary on his MySpace page, where he wrote that she flew him to LA for one day and put him up at the Roosevelt so he could add to her body art.

Under the first photo, with the guns drawn on each shoulder as seen below, Bang Bang writes, “i really wanted to put it here… she loved em.. .but, cover girl wouldnt have liked it much… and they pay the bills!”

But she ended up getting them on the side of her ribs, under her arms, “ended up doing it on her ribbs… ” as seen here:

[From The Huffington Post]

Is Rihanna etching some strength onto her body? I hope it’s true that she’s finally cut ties with Brown and is ready to put that abuse and craziness behind her. It takes a lot of courage and nerve to realize that you can no longer see that person you love and that you need to cut ties for your own safety and well being. Maybe Rihanna is marking a new chapter in her life. She should do it with inner strength and not weapons, but maybe the gun symbolism is what works for her. Whatever helps her stay safe and move forward in her life. She has plenty of life left to live and if she choses the right path Brown will soon be a distant memory.

Rihanna is shown with the gun necklace below out in NY on 3/14/09. Credit: Hector Vallenilla, PacificCoastNews.com