The singer has faced many rumors about her tattoos but it is now that she's decided to open up about it.
Dolly Parton is an extremely successful singer and songwriter known for her chartbusters like Jolene, The Bargain Store, Here You Come Again, and many others. But there's another thing she's known for. She always wears long-sleeved outfits that have made some people wonder, why the long sleeves?
According to Jezebel, the country singer has not worn sleeveless or strapless gowns because she's hiding her tattoos. Yup, Dolly Parton dorns tattoos, just an extra embellishment to her already badass personality.
But unlike most celebrities, Parton doesn't like to show off her ink. There had been rumors around about her having tattoos but she chose to deny their existence completely. However, Jennifer Saunders revealed in a 2013 interview that Parton showed her and Roseanne her tattoos in a "bizarre" incident.
When they ran into Parton at a restaurant, she asked the women if they wanted to see her tattoos and the next thing they know, the singer opened up her blouse and to their surprise, her breasts were "covered in the most beautiful angels and beautiful butterflies and baskets of flowers in pastel-colored tattoos."
Even though she asked Saunders and Roseanne not to tell anyone, Saunders mentioned the anecdote in her autobiography. In 1999, Jay Leno peeked down her shoulder cut-out top while she was on The Tonight Show and got a glimpse of one of her tattoos and she admitted to having an angel and a butterfly. Ever since then she's been careful about her clothes. If the clothes are sheer, she makes sure to wear something like a stocking on her arm to hide the ink.
And now, after years of facing the rumors, the Islands in the Stream singer wants to clarify some things. Talking to People, she said, "I do have some tattoos, that's true. But they're tasteful. I'm not a tattoo girl." Giving details on her "tasteful" tattoos, she said, "My tattoos are pretty, they’re artful and they usually started out to cover some scar, not to make a big statement," she said.
"Ribbons and bows and butterflies are the things that I have. I was very sick for a while and I had to wear a feeding tube. It left a little indention in my side and I didn't like it because I’m so fair that scars turn purple on me," she added.
Gushing about her bee tattoo she added, "I like to make positives out of negatives. I had a little beehive tattooed over it — a little yellow-and-brown beehive with a tiny little bee on top of the hive. The mouth of it is that little sinkhole."
Parton, once speaking to Good Morning America's Robin Roberts for the ABC's special Dolly Parton: Here She Comes Again!, admitted to hiding some of her tattoos but she also revealed the reason behind it.
“I got them to cover scars or things,” she said and added, “If I have to get a scar for any reason, I never can kind of get rid of that purple look. So I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to kind of decorate these with some flowers or little butterflies or whatever.’”
She confessed that the butterfly reveals the story of her "getting lost in the woods," growing up, and "getting in trouble chasing butterflies." She continued, "I wrote a song called ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly,’ and it became a big hit in my early years.”
In an interview with Larry King, she revealed that the scars were actually keloids, raised scars caused by an injury or surgery, reported The List. So, instead of getting ashamed of it, she chose to decorate them with the things she likes. She told King, “They’re not tattoos that are for big statements.”
When asked if she has a tattoo dedicated to her 78-year-old husband Carl Dean, she said laughing, "No, he's tattooed on my heart." She added, "Who knows, I may get some more later. I may just have to get covered with tattoos just so everybody could be right!"
Parton is all set to release her Christmas album next month in October.
References:
https://jezebel.com/dolly-partons-boobs-and-arms-are-covered-in-secret-tatt-1574168202
https://people.com/country/dolly-parton-addresses-tattoo-rumors-and-finally-reveals-moving-reason-behind-her-tasteful-ink/
https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/dolly-parton-opens-song-inspirations-aunt-dolly-female-66801989
https://www.thelist.com/177137/the-real-reason-dolly-parton-always-wears-long-sleeves/
