Dolly Parton’s famous rhinestones, wigs and long-sleeved outfits were always on display, but it turns out she had something hiding underneath. Just like her famous goddaughter Miley Cyrus, Parton had a nice little collection of tattoos.
The country music icon, who died Tuesday at 80 after a brief battle with cancer, spent much of her career leaving fans guessing about the ink she kept hidden from view.
In 2011, Roseanne Barr claimed that Parton was “totally tattooed” and said she had seen the singer’s body art. “I shouldn’t even tell this. Dolly Parton is totally tattooed,” she said on “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” Barr described the tattoos as pastel-colored designs, including bows.
© 20th Century FoxParton herself seemed to enjoy the fact that people kept guessing. Some people even believed she had a full-on sleeve hiding underneath her long sleeves.
© NBCShe first confirmed the ink on the Jay Leno Show in 1996 when he noticed a tattoo coming out of her sleeve. “Yeah, I have a little tattoo. Don’t start pulling my clothes down,” she told the host, confirming she had an angel design and a tiny butterfly.
© GettyThe “Jolene” singer once joked that she might eventually get enough tattoos to prove all the rumors right.“Who knows, I may get some more later,” she said. “I may just have to get covered with tattoos just so everybody could be right!”
Parton addressed it with Larry King, explaining, “I have a tendency to have keloid scarring, and sometimes they won’t ever lose the purple, so I started having pastel little things to disguise things, splattered them here and there, but I wouldn’t be a biker chick or anything.”
After surgeries and other medical procedures, some of those scars would remain discolored, so she decided to turn them into something she could actually enjoy looking at.
She told W Magazine, “If the scars didn’t heal properly, I just gotta put tattoos to take the sting out,” she told the outlet. “I don’t have the real heavy, dark tattoos. Mine are all pastel. And I have more than one!”
© GettyAs for what she has, she told People they’re “pretty” and “artful,” not meant to “make a big statement.” “Ribbons and bows and butterflies are the things that I have,” she explained. “They’re tasteful. I’m not a tattoo girl,” she added.
The butterfly, in particular, was more than just a pretty design for Parton. It had been one of her favorite symbols since she was a child growing up in Tennessee. In a 2021 interview with W Magazine, Parton explained that she used to chase butterflies as a little girl and had always felt connected to them.
“Butterflies don’t sting, they don’t bite, and they are so beautiful,” she said. “And I just kind of related to them with my own personality. I claimed them as my little symbol.”
© Ron DavisThat connection followed her throughout her career. Butterflies appeared throughout her world, from her music to Dollywood and even her perfume. And, eventually, they found their way onto her skin.
© GettyParton also made it clear that her tattoos weren’t the kind of thing she planned to show off. “I don’t have the real heavy, dark tattoos. Mine are all pastel. And I have more than one!” she told W Magazine.
But one of her tattoos came from a much more difficult chapter in her life. Parton revealed that she had once been seriously ill and needed a feeding tube. When it was removed, it left an indentation and scar on her side that bothered her because of the way her skin healed.
So instead of letting the scar remain something she disliked, she decorated it. “I like to make positives out of negatives,” Parton told PEOPLE. She had a small yellow-and-brown beehive tattooed over the area with a tiny bee sitting on top. The “mouth” of the beehive, she explained, covered the indentation left by the feeding tube.
As for whether she ever got a tattoo for her husband, Carl Dean, she said no, explaining, “He’s tattooed on my heart.”
Rest In Peace.
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