RETIRED professional wrestler Dave Bautista recently revealed that he covered up a tattoo that used to honor an old friend after the latter made homophobic statements.

Though he didn’t names, many followers thought he was referring to Filipino boxing legend, former Sen. Manny Pacquiao.

In a January 5 interview with American men’s magazine GQ, the wrestler-turned-actor broke down each of his tattoos and the meaning behind them.

While Bautista had significantly large tattoos throughout his body, he also noted that he had “a lot of cover-ups.”

Correcting mistakes 

“I think cover-ups are, again, a part of your story, a part of your life story. You know, you have regrets. You make mistakes, and so you try to fix them as best as you can, and that’s what they are. Cover-ups are repairs of mistakes,” said Bautista.

One of the cover-ups he made was for a meteor tattoo that was the logo of a team belonging to a person he had considered a friend, and which he used to be a part of. According to Bautista, he had the tattoo changed after learning that this former friend was an “extreme homophobe.”

Bautista points out a tattoo he had covered up. | Screengrab from GQ’s YouTube video.

“I was a part of a team of a person I considered a friend and someone I really looked up to,” Bautista said. “And then later he came out publicly with some anti-gay statements and turned out to be an extreme homophobe.”

Standing up for mom 

Bautista said it was a personal matter to him because his mother is a lesbian. After hearing his friend’s homophobic sentiments, he cut ties with him.

“I had a huge issue with it. It’s a personal issue with me. My mom’s a lesbian and I could just no longer call him a friend. And so I had it covered up with this,” he said.

Bautista shared a side-by-side photo of the tattoo before and after the cover up in his October 2016 Instagram post.

Photo courtesy: Dave Bautista’s Instagram

Team Pacquiao reference 

The tattoo that Bautista covered up was a flaming meteor that resembles the Team Pacquiao logo. Manny Pacquiao, former senator and boxing sensation, also had a meteor tattoo on his left forearm.

The Filipino-American retired wrestler used to be a part of Pacquiao’s boxing team called “Team Pacquiao.” The two used to be good friends until Pacquiao’s “offensive” statement to the LGBTQIA+ community, in which Bautista was a proud supporter of.

In 2016, the boxing champion said that the gay people “are worse than animals.” Although Pacquiao later apologized for it, Bautista was offended and called Pacquiao a “f—ing idiot.”

“My opinion on that is you’re a f—ing idiot. My mom’s a lesbian… I feel like if anyone called my mother an animal, I’d stick my foot in his ass,” he told tabloid news website TMZ.

An ally 

Bautista is known for his public and permanent support for the gay community. In June 2022, he went to the Pride march to show his support and pay tribute to his mother by wearing a pride shirt.

Photo courtesy: Dave Bautista’s Instagram

David Michael Bautista Jr. is a 53-year-old retired WWE champion who gained popularity in the acting scene for his iconic role as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). 

Aside from his appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bautista was also famous for the films Final Score (2018), Stuber (2019), My Spy (2020), and Dune (2021).