Glass Onion star Dave Bautista has come a long way from bad boy wrestler to international TV and film star. But his performance in the new Netflix hit show proves his rise to stardom is well-earned.
Despite his rise to fame via 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the star maintains a connection with his personal history. In fact, it’s pretty easy for the 54-year-old since so much of it is inked onto his skin.
Bautista’s iconic tattoos are a signature part of his look, and many of them have deep personal meaning to him. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few tattoos he’s a little embarrassed by along the way.
Dave Bautista’s life story on his skin via tattoos
Bautista recently took fans on a tour of his tattoos during an interview with GQ. While a good amount of the actor’s skin is covered in ink, he only has three tattoos.
Most of the art on Bautista’s body are large works of art — though they were done in increments. Especially during his wrestling career, he would often have to wait months to get a tattoo finished. His match schedule never left time for them to heal.
The star’s tattoos mainly carry deep personal meaning or commemorate important moments throughout his life. His left arm flies both the Greek and Filipino flags to honor his heritage. On his right thigh are detailed, realistic portraits of three of his dogs. He’s picked up new dogs since they were inked though … luckily he’s got some open canvas underneath to add three more.
On his hands, the star carries iconography from The Avengers and Spectre since they were both huge forces in his early career. One of his knuckles even has the logo for Wu-Tang Clan since founding member RZA was so instrumental in helping Bautista make the transition from wrestler to actor.
Dave Bautista does have a few regrets
Bautista readily admits that he has a lot of cover-ups under his ink. There’s at least one ex-girlfriend covered up on there, as well as an ex-wife on his knuckle. Even the star’s first tattoo is covered up now: a concrete heart on his butt that said “heart of stone.” Regret may be a little understandable there.
That’s not to say he’s had every tattoo he has reservations about covered up or removed. Bautista’s left thigh has a large portrait of a young man in early 20th-century streetwear sandwiched between the words “Gentleman Hooligan.”
While Bautista said he did this because he grew up relatively poor and always still felt like that kid from the streets, he’s become “a little embarrassed” with how uncannily the piece resembles Cillian Murphy. It does because Bautista originally found a picture of Murphy from Peaky Blinders that he liked. He asked his artist to use it as a reference and change up the face so it didn’t look like Murphy.
Unfortunately, when the star first shared the ink on social media, fans quickly pointed out how cool it was that Dave Bautista had a tattoo of Cillian Murphy. While Bautista seems to realize that having another actor’s tattoo on his leg is a little cringe, he still loves the piece.
Bautista’s tattoo shop: DC Society Ink
Bautista has spent most of his life amassing the tattoo collection on his body, but he still feels like he should be closer to tattoo culture. The star enjoys hanging out around tattoo shops so much that he bought his own in Tampa, Florida: DC Society Ink.
The name has a double meaning to Bautista. He is originally from Washington D.C., but he also frequently uses #DreamChaser as a theme on his social media and as a motto for his life.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to own a tattoo shop,” the former wrestler told GQ. “Just because I love the culture, I love the environment. I love sitting around tattoo shops.”
Luckily, that’ll make it plenty easy for the star to finish filling up his canvas. There’s still some blank space on there and plenty of history left to tell in his career.
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