With a wide variety of tattoos sprawled across his entire body,Dave Bautistahas a lot of ink, and there’s a story behind every individual tattoo. In a new interview withGQ, theGuardians of the Galaxystar breaks down the meaning behind all of his various tattoos, though one that seems to stand out is why he’s been inked with an image of Winnie the Pooh. As Bautista is not particularly known to be a big fan of the classic cartoon character, the image does seem peculiar compared to the rest of the artwork on the actor’s body.
As Bautista tells GQ, he doesn’t have the tattoo because of a secret obsession with the honey-loving bear. The real story behind the ink is much more interesting than that. The actor recalls how he’d gotten the tattoo based on an interaction he’d had withChloe Coleman, the child star who played his 9-year-old spy trainee in the 2020 comedyMy Spy. As Bautista puts it:
“I have a Winnie the Pooh tattoo on the back of my leg, which I get asked about a lot. So I did a film calledMy Spy, with a little actress named Chloe Coleman, who is one of my favorite people in the world. And so we went out on the press tour, and at one outlet, we had to play True or False to see how well we knew each other. They asked Chloe, he said, ‘True or false? Dave has a tattoo of Winnie the Pooh.'”
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Dave Bautista Is a Big Teddy Bear
At the time, Bautista did not have a Pooh tattoo, but given her perception of him, it was easy for Coleman to believe that he did. The reasoning she gave behind her answer apparently touched Bautista so much that he felt inspired to actually go out and get the tattoo after the interview. It may not be the most intricate or intimidating of his tattoos, but it’s clearly one that the actor is very happy with.
“Chloe said, ‘Well, I know most people might think that Dave is big and mean and scary, so he wouldn’t have a Winnie the Pooh tattoo, but I know Dave. He’s like the sweetest guy ever and he’s just a big teddy bear and I just love him to death.’ She went on and on, said all these great things about me, and she said, So, yes, I think it’s true. Dave has a Winnie the Pooh tattoo. And she got the buzzer. [mimics buzzer] Wrong. And she was like, Oh. She was so disappointed, and I was disappointed for her. And I said, I don’t have one, but because I love you so much, I’m going to get one. So I got a Winnie the Pooh tattoo for my little co-star Chloe Coleman.”
My Spyis streaming on Prime Video. You can also see the interview that inspired Bautista to get the Winnie the Pooh tattoo below.
