Article Highlights:
- Dolly Parton talks about her plans to get tattoos in 1984
- The TV host who first seen the singer was tatted
- How the rumor began that Parton is roofed in tattoos
For years Dolly Parton has been the topic of tattoo rumors — that her physique is roofed with ink. Right here’s how the rumor began and why Parton determined to get tatted again in 1984.
Why Dolly Parton determined to get tattoos
Parton didn’t get tattoos for the sake of getting tattoos. In a 1984 interview with Girls’ Residence Journal, she talked about her plans for getting some ink.
“I have keloid scars from my operation and the doctors can’t do anything about it,” she mentioned, as recorded in the e-book Dolly on Dolly. “So I’m going to get tattooed right over my stomach incision. I don’t mean mermaids. I mean, form the left side of my navel down, I’ll make what looks like a tiny ribbon of eyelet lace in very light colors.”
Parton underwent surgical procedure after struggling for 3 years from critical well being issues starting when she was 35. Her procedures left her with varied scars — scars that she deliberate on protecting with pastel tattoos.
“I’ll make it baby pink,” she mentioned. “Baby lavender. With faint, tiny roses. I’ll make a sweet, delicate bow with what looks to be a little end that falls over like a piece of string. Like a little streamer. With the big scar down the front of my abdomen, I’m going to tattoo cross-stitches from one side to another. Like a bodice. It’ll be very delicate. All the bows and ribbons will be matching. Isn’t that precious? I sketched my design and already had a consultation with someone in New York who’s going to do it for me… my doctor can’t wait to see my tattoos.”
Jay Leno seen considered one of Dolly Parton’s tattoos
The “Jolene” singer’s tattoos went largely unnoticed till 1996 when she was on The Tonight Present. “Is that a tattoo?” Jay Leno requested her, tugging at her off-the-shoulder outfit.
“Yeah, I have a little tattoo, but don’t start pullin’ my clothes down!” she laughed. “That’s an angel, as a matter of fact. I have a little butterfly and a little angel. My guardian angel.”
The tattoo rumors
Then, in 2011, Comic Rosanne Barr mentioned on the Late Late Present with Craig Ferguson that she’d seen Parton’s many tattoos herself.
“She’s got all these awesome tattoos all over her body,” she mentioned. “No black or blue lines. All pastel. Gorgeous bows all over everything.”
The one good conspiracy concept left is that Dolly Parton by no means wears a t-shirt as a result of she’s concealing full tattoo sleeves
— Evan Stern (@evanjstern) March 2, 2021
Between Barr’s interview and some press photographs that hinted at the “Eagle When She Flies” singer’s ink, a rumor began that Parton was all however lined in “secret tattoos.” It didn’t assist when, in 2012, Anderson Cooper requested the singer about the rumor and he or she mentioned: “I might. But I’m not going to show ’em ’til they catch me at it.”
Since then Parton’s been requested about her tattoos quite a bit. She sometimes says the identical factor — that she received them to cowl her surgical procedure scars.
“I do have a few little tattoos, but they were mostly done to cover scars because I’m so fair,” she mentioned on The Right this moment Present in 2014. “I do have a few but they’re not where you can see them… they are mostly for my husband.”