Chris Hemsworth admits he almost removed tattoo until his daughter stepped in

Chris Hemsworth’s tattoos may look tough, but behind several of them is a much softer story. The Australian actor recently revealed that some of the ink he once considered removing now carries even deeper meaning, thanks to his 13-year-old daughter, India.

During an appearance on the SmartLess podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, Hemsworth admitted that while he sometimes grows “sick” of his tattoos, a few are permanently protected by his daughter’s approval.

“My Dr. Seuss tattoo … I used to read that book to her a lot, and my mom read it to me — Oh, the Places You’ll Go — and she just would draw that little character and loved it,” he shared. “And so I got that tattoo.”

The design, inspired by Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, sits on the inside of his left bicep. Years later, however, the Thor star confessed he was ready to let it fade.

“A few years later, I was like, I’m kinda sick of it. So I started getting it taken off, I did like one laser session, and then she came home one day, and she goes, ‘It’s rubbing off. What happened to it? It’s rubbing off,’ ” Hemsworth recalled. At first, he assumed she had outgrown it too. “She goes, ‘No. I love it.’ So, it’s now kind of half faded, you know, but it’s still there.”

© Elsa Pataky/IG

That was not the only time India influenced his body art. Hemsworth described another late night session with his tattoo artist that took an unexpected turn. “I was sitting with a tattoo artist one night, and it was, like, 10:00, and he’s designing all these different things and all this sort of sacred geometry and trippy-looking stuff. And my daughter walked out and goes, ‘Dad, I can’t sleep. You’re making too much noise.’ I’m like, ‘Sorry. Sorry,’ ” he said.

She ended up sitting beside him, doodling. “And she sits down and starts squiggling and and drew the three little images here.” The result? A spontaneous pivot in artistic direction. “[My tattoo artist] looked at me and goes, ‘I think [her drawings are] way cooler than anything we’re designing, and so I took a photo of that, and that’s that,” the doting dad continued.

Family has long been central to Hemsworth’s ink. He and wife Elsa Pataky share a forearm tattoo that vertically spells C E I T S, representing Chris, Elsa, India, Tristan and Sasha. The couple, who married in 2010, are parents to India and 11 year old twin boys, Sasha and Tristan.

© Patricia Schlein/Star Max

Other pieces reflect different chapters of his career. In 2018, Hemsworth joined five of his original Avengers castmates in getting matching tattoos of the Avengers logo, commemorating their time in the Marvel universe.

He also sports a large geometric design on his inner right forearm, created by tattoo artist Dillon Forte, known for his sacred geometry style. In 2022, Hemsworth showcased another geometric piece on Instagram, hinting at Norse inspiration closely associated with his portrayal of Thor.

Despite the global fame that came with wielding the hammer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hemsworth says his kids are largely unimpressed.

© Chris Hemsworth/IG

At the world premiere of Crime 101 at United Theater on Broadway in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, he joked about whether he earns “cool points” at home. “They don’t care. They don’t care at all,” Hemsworth quipped.

“I reckon when they first realized I was Thor, they thought it was really cool,” he said. “And then they realized they couldn’t fly and they thought it was less cool.” “Now they’re just like, ‘ah, Dad, whatever,’ ” he added. “Teenagers.”

In many ways, fatherhood has shaped more than just his tattoos. Hemsworth has spoken candidly about relocating his family from Los Angeles back to Australia, calling the move the “greatest decision” he’s made.

© CHRIS DELMAS

Speaking on SmartLess, he reflected on life in Hollywood, explaining that after welcoming his sons, the family felt out of place in LA. “It was right around the time my boys were born, and it was just, we kind of were set up in LA and not enjoying it, you know? Like nothing was shooting there. We were filming kind of everywhere else,” he said. “And then … you’d come home and paparazzi and all the sort of the trappings of, you know, living in that space.”

Now settled on a sprawling farm in Australia, Hemsworth says home feels restorative. “You know, when you come back from work, you wanna go on a holiday? Like coming home for me is – it feels like a holiday. We have big farm and horses and motorbikes and surf.”