Dave Bautista regrets ‘really bad’ first tattoo

Dave Bautista deeply regrets his first-ever tattoo.

The wrestler-turned-actor has a large collection of body art, including the word “imagine” on his torso, depictions of his pet dogs on his right thigh, as well as tribal motifs across his shoulders.

However, during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, Dave admitted he wishes he had never chosen to have a “cement-looking heart” design inked on his bottom with the words “heart of stone” when he was “very young” in the 1980s.

“Yeah. My first tattoo,” he replied when asked by host Seth if he has any regrets, noting that the design was “really bad” and “cheap”.

“It was when I was really young and I didn’t want anybody to see it – I especially didn’t want my dad to see it, I didn’t want to get in trouble for getting a tattoo, I was pretty young – it was on my a*s,” he added.

Dave went on to recall that even the tattoo artist wasn’t convinced by the design.

“I got it from this old redneck in Arlington, Virginia. I told him where I wanted it. He shaved my butt and then he’s sitting in a little rolling chair and he rolls up to my face and he goes, ‘Man, are you sure you want this on you a*s?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, he put it there. A week or two after that, I regretted it,” the 52-year-old laughed. “I lived with it for years and I got ragged on so much throughout wrestling. In the shower, it was like, ‘What’s that on your a*s?’ I finally got it covered up I think around 2007… I’m still living it down, man.”