Batista got his three-word a** tattoo covered up after WWE stars mocked him
Dave Bautista, aka Batista in WWE, recently disclosed details about the first tattoo he received.
At the age of 18, the six-time WWE world champion noticed a tattoo containing the words, "Heart of stone." He liked the design but did not want his dad to find out, so he asked for the tattoo to be printed on his a**.
In a GQ interview, the wrestler-turned-actor spoke about the amusing circumstances behind his first piece of ink:
"It was this heart that looked like it was cement, and around it, it said, 'Heart of stone,'" Batista recalled. "I saw it and I thought, 'Yeah, that's tough.' He [the tattoo artist, an old biker named Rick] said, 'Well, where do you want it?' I said, 'Well, I want it on my a** because I don't want my dad to see it. I don't want to get in trouble.' He did it, he put 'heart of stone' on my a**, and I immediately regretted it." [2:30 – 2:49]
Batista added that he covered up the tattoo after his fellow WWE Superstars repeatedly mocked him about it:
"I lived with it for years and got razzed so much through my wrestling career, taking a shower with 20 other wrestlers, who are just relentless, I finally got it covered up." [2:50 – 2:58]
The 53-year-old also revealed that his My Spy co-star Chloe Coleman once incorrectly assumed during a quiz that he had a Winnie the Pooh tattoo. He felt bad that the child actress guessed incorrectly, so he got a tattoo of the character printed on his leg.
Why WWE loved Batista's tattoos
Due to merchandising reasons, WWE's higher-ups prefer wrestlers to ask for permission before changing their hairstyle. However, that same rule seemingly does not apply to tattoos.
20 years of @DaveBautista.
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Batista said the company earned more money thanks to his ever-evolving tattoo collection:
"If you notice throughout my career whenever I got injured and I was out for two, three months, I would always come back with new tattoos, which the company actually loved because the more new tattoos you have, the more new action figures you have. So, you can kinda date my wrestling career through my tattoos and through the tattoos on my action figures." [0:49 – 1:08]
The Animal recently starred in the Netflix film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Earlier this week, he responded to fans who often compare his movie career to fellow former WWE Superstar The Rock.
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Please credit GQ and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.