Batista Covered Up Manny Pacquiao Tattoo Following Anti-Gay Comments

Former WWE superstar-turned-box-office movie star Dave "Batista" Bautista is probably one of the most recognizable people in the world, and that's thanks in large part to his massive stature, as well as his wealth of tattoos.

The 53-year-old former wrestler—who stands at a massive 6-foot-6 and weighs nearly 300 pounds—is covered in ink from nearly head to foot, and most of his tattoos have amazing and interesting stories behind them.

In an interview with GQ, Bautista shared the story behind some of his most notable tattoos.

"I am a storyteller in every aspect of my life, from my career, to what I've done in wrestling, with films, being a film producer, being an actor, and through my tattoos, I tell the story of my life," Bautista told the outlet.

When Bautista first broke onto the professional wrestling scene, he primarily only had tattoos on his back, biceps, and belly button.

As his WWE career progressed, Bautista shared that he would gradually get more and more tattoos, and usually get them done during the time he was injured.

"If you notice, throughout my career, whenever I got injured and I was out for two, three months, I would always come back with new tattoos," he shared.

"So you can kind of date my wrestling career through my tattoos, and through the tattoos on my action figures."

Bautista also shared a story of a tattoo that he covered up due to differences in beliefs.

"It used to be a team logo, I was part of a team, of a person I considered a friend and someone I really looked up to," Bautista explained while showing a covered-up tattoo on his left forearm. "Then he later came out publicly with some anti-gay statements and turned out to be an extreme homophobe, and so I had a huge issue with it."

While Bautista did not directly mention that certain person, it's easy to surmise that he was talking about eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao.

The tattoo in question, was the image of a meteor, which at the time was a symbol linked to Pacquiao.

Pacquiao himself also has a similar meteor tattoo, also emblazoned on his left forearm.

Bautista, who is half-Filipino, became close with Pacquiao back in the day, and even accompanied the Filipino pugilist out to the ring for his bout with Ricky Hatton back in 2009.

During his senatorial run back in 2016, Pacquiao made headlines by indirectly saying that "homosexuals were worse than animals."

That statement would also lead to Pacquiao getting dropped by sportswear apparel giant Nike, one of his biggest sponsors at the time.

Pacquiao would apologize for his statement and went on to become a senator in the Philippines' 2016 polls.

In 2022, he would run for the presidency but would lose.

"It's a personal issue for me, my mom's a lesbian, and I just could no longer call him a friend, and so I had it covered up with this," Bautista explained further.

Check out the full video of Bautista talking about his tattoos below:

While many will remember Bautista for his days as one of the biggest stars in WWE during the 2000s and 2010s, he's likely now most associated with his role as Drax the Destroyer in the ultra-popular Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As Drax, Bautista has appeared in multiple box office hits such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.

Bautista is expected to play Drax one last time in the upcoming third installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

Outside the MCU, Bautista has appeared in movies such as Spectre, Blade Runner 2049, Hotel Artemis, My Spy, Army of the Dead, Dune, and most recently, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.