Find Out More About Destination X Host Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Many Meaningful Tattoos
Jeffrey Dean Morgan hasn't just gotten inked himself, he often encourages others to do the same — even at his wedding reception.
Destination X’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan has found a permanent way to mark his biggest milestones in life.
The host of NBC’s newest adventure reality competition has taken to getting tattoos to symbolize the things that matter most to him, whether it's reminders of his children, his well-known roles, or the bonds he shares with others.
The exact number of tattoos Morgan has acquired over the years remains a mystery, but The Walking Dead star put the number at “maybe 10” in an interview back in 2017.
He has only added to his collection since then — even getting a tattoo during his own wedding reception to wife Hilarie Burton in 2019.
To find out more about his tattoos and the often symbolic reasoning behind them, read on below:
His Gun From The Salvation
Morgan found a unique way to commemorate his time playing a villainous gang leader and land baron, Henry Delarue, in the 2014 western thriller The Salvation, by getting a tattoo of the gun his character carried in the film.
Morgan showed off the tat on his inner forearm in 2014 as he recounted the story of how he got the tattoo — even though not all his castmates were initially on board with the idea.
“We were in Africa and…this person was sort of in charge of cast and making sure we had all of our needs met, and of course they were, but I think I had a beer or two one night and said, ‘Hey, do we know any tattoo artists?’ and everybody was like, ‘You’re not very smart, man,’” Morgan recalled.
Morgan wasn’t dissuaded by the naysayers, and a tattoo artist soon came to the “little lodge” where they were staying and his skeptical castmates quickly followed suit.
“I went and got this tattoo of the gun that I used in the film, followed in succession on different nights, you know, the next four nights, other cast members got tattoos,” Morgan shared. “But I don’t know that anybody got a gun or had something specific to the film.”
"Bisou" on His Forearm
Another one of Morgan’s notable tattoos is a tribute to man’s best friend. The tattoo honors his late dog Bisou.
Morgan has the beloved pooch’s name written across the back of his forearm.
"I rescued her on the Venice boardwalk," he told Hudson Valley News Network in 2017. "Some kids were selling three litters of puppies and I dug through the box and there was one, that, she was maybe four inches long, and I was like, I want to take that one that's not going to make it through the day. I bottle-fed her for about a month . . . two days after she passed I had her name tattooed on my arm. But oh, my god I miss her, I miss her so much."
The love between the two was on full display when they adorably made a joint appearance on The Bonnie Hunt Show in 2009 and Morgan explained that he named her Bisou, which translates to “kiss” in French, because she used to “kiss her way around” the bottle while he fed her as a puppy.
Matching Supernatural Tattoos
Morgan tied the knot with Burton, his longtime girlfriend, in October of 2019, but it wasn’t the only bond he cemented that day.
The couple had a tattoo artist at the reception who was only too happy to give the groom and his Supernatural co-stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles matching tattoos to honor their time together on the hit series.
Morgan shared a trio of images of the three men getting the new ink on their right wrists on Instagram.
“Me and @hilarieburton weren’t the only ones joined for life.... @jaredpadalecki @jensenackles and myself will forever have a bond that is both special, and permanent,” he captioned the shots. “Love you both dearly.”
Although Morgan didn’t share the design, Ackles later revealed at a Supernatural fan convention that the three got matching crown tattoos, which was one of “about 20 small designs” on the menu that night, Entertainment Weekly reported.
He joked that the three now call themselves the three kings.
Tattoos Honoring The Walking Dead
Arguably, Morgan’s most memorable role has been playing fearsome anti-hero Negan Smith in The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Dead City, and Morgan has more than one permanent reminders of the career highlight.
Although they play adversaries on screen, Morgan and Norman Reedus — who plays Daryl Dixon in the series — are real-life besties and have the matching tattoos to prove it.
A tattoo artist going by the name Chris 51 shared a hilarious image on Facebook of himself with Morgan and Reedus, who were hamming it up as they each showed off their simplistic skull tattoos.
“Once upon a time in a Berlin hotel room I tattooed Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead. Great guys!” he wrote of the shot.
Morgan also has a skull wearing a spiky hat on his upper arm with “Lucille” tattooed underneath it in honor of his character’s weapon of choice, a barbed-wire- covered baseball bat he named after his late wife Lucille (played on screen by Burton).
"I got a tattoo this year, it says, 'Lucille,'" he told People earlier this year. "My wife played Lucille, but really it's the bat."
The distinctive weapon holds special significance for Morgan.
"I never had a prop in my life as an actor that felt so innately mine and feels like an extension of the character," he said. "And me personally, I adore her."
Morgan added during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark that he got the new tattoo after hiring a tattoo artist to come to work “for like three days” to give “everybody on the crew a tattoo.”
“So I have a Lucille tattoo that I say is really in honor of my wife,” he said before chuckling. “I don’t know if she bought that one.”
Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Ink in Honor of His Children
Morgan may have played his share of cold-hearted villains, but at his core he’s one sentimental guy. That is evident by the tattoos he has to honor his children, son Augustus, 15, and daughter George Virginia, 7.
Morgan has devoted a prominent spot on his knuckles for both children, with “Gusy,” a nickname for his son, written on the knuckles of his left hand and a tattoo on his right meant to signify “hugs and kisses” for his daughter, USA Today reported.
He joked that the knuckle placement also serves as a warning to his daughter’s future suitors.
"Daddy loves his little girl," Morgan warned at the time. "So if you come knocking on my door, you best have your manners attached."
It isn’t the only tattoo he has in honor of his daughter.
When asked by Men’s Health Magazine which tattoo means the most to him, Morgan shared that he later hired the same tattoo artist who had been at his wedding to give him a tattoo of his daughter’s name that she wrote herself — with an unusual twist she thought up, too.
“I got my daughter’s name,” he said, showing off the tattoo on his lower right arm right below the gun from The Salvation. “She had written it for me and then she added blood as I was walking out the door and she said ‘Daddy, it’s ‘cause the blood makes it bad ass.’”
To keep up with Morgan as he leads 12 contestants through the travel adventure competition of a lifetime, watch Destination X on Tuesdays at 10p ET/PT on NBC or stream the episodes on Peacock after they become available the next day.
