Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson have been playing a dangerous game on Twitter: pitting One Direction fans against each other. Zayn and Louis were involved in a snarky Twitter feud and today thanked fans for taking each others' sides. Can you believe that these two have matching tattoos? It looks like not even permanent ink is going to save this friendship.

According to E! News, after Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and music producer Naughty Boy got caught up in an intense, attitude-filled Twitter feud on Wednesday, fans quickly found themselves on either side of the debate. Most One Direction fans were quick to defend Louis, getting the hashtag #TomlinsonSlaysAgain to trend worldwide on Twitter.

But on Thursday morning, Louis and Zayn addressed their fans directly - making the situation worse.

Malik wrote on Twitter: "Don't know why I'm being attacked for defending myself, people got it twisted! I love my fans ?! Every single one of you x."

Tomlinson also tweeted: "Our fans support really has been a different class ! Huge love to you guys!!"

It's hard to remember that at one point, these two were the closest of friends out of the One Direction gang, and even got matching tattoos in August, 2013 in Los Angeles. They both got the words "BUS 1" inked on their skin, Cambio.com reported; Zayn has the tattoo on his hand, and Louis got it on his forearm. They also got a tic-tac-toe board tattoo that matches; Zayn has it on his leg, and Louis also got it on his forearm, near his elbow, according to the website. Louis' tic-tac-toe board has three red x's across it. The One Direction Philippines Facebook page reported that the "BUS 1" tattoo symbolizes the boys' home on tour, which is the tour bus that they travel around from show to show in. The website states that Zayn and Louis like staying on the tour bus even if they have huge rooms rented for them in fancy hotels.

The whole Twitter drama started when Naughty Boy tweeted a picture of himself and Zayn Malik, with the caption "Replace this," jabbing at the rumor that One Direction is looking for Zayn's replacement. Naughty Boy used a filter for the photo, and moments later, Tomlinson tweeted (without using names): "Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha! Some people still do HA!"

This started some back-and-forth snide remarks between Naughty Boy and Louis Tomlinson (mostly dissing each others' careers), until Zayn got involved: "@Louis_Tomlinson remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine?"

Let's hope those tattoos can soon act as a reminder to the boys that once upon a time they were like brothers.