Jason Momoa Shows Off His Tattoos

It's always funny when I see it,

and I'm like, Whoa, it's so a lot!

It's very, it's very a lot.

But I don't ever see it and I look in the mirror,

and I'm like, I can't see it.

Aloha, GQ.

I'm here to take you through some of my tattoos.

[smooth pop music]

They really talk about like,

these things live inside of you

and you're just like touching it to like bring it out.

I don't crave it as much as like I'm called to it.

I've never felt like, Oh, I need to get that on me.

It's always been like,

Whoa, this needs to happen.

Or it's like through definitive moments

that needed to happen in my life

and it just feels like I had more of a calling

than me choosing stuff

and just putting random shit on my body.

The first tattoo was this one right here.

Took about eight hours.

It's an aumakua, it's a guardian,

and that's the shark, it's the manō.

I had this done right before my daughter was born,

so I was 26 when I had this, I'm 44 now.

That was my first tattoo,

pretty gnarly 'cause it's the biggest one I have

and it's the first one I did, so.

I did it, this extension of it,

for this character that I'm playing on Chief of War.

It really fit with that, so I've only really worn

this with one character right now.

The next one I do on Minecraft,

it'll have to be covered up.

I didn't originally do this all the way down because

I wasn't making it as an actor, this was for me.

And you know, you don't want to have a bunch of tattoos on,

you're not gonna get a lot of jobs and then,

now that I'm me,

I can have the things that I'd like to have now, so

I'm very thankful for that.

I guess when we did the Dothraki stuff,

I mean, it's funny because

they wanted to cover this up

and they always had like long bands, but I was like, Guys,

there's tapestry behind me that has this design on it,

why wouldn't it?

And they're like, We don't want your tattoos.

So I was like, Fine.

And then when I did these,

it's just sitting in the makeup trailer

and I just become obsessed

with all that kind of stuff

when you're building a character,

so I just kinda came up with that,

I came up with putting all the black around my eyes

and you just get obsessed with playing a character

and I just enjoy that.

When they design the sets

that are amazing and they're not blue screen,

when you actually get to walk into those sets,

you're like, Wow, it's beautiful to

coexist with these other artists, and then

wardrobe and props and you get to see all these things

and you get to bring your work in with their work.

And yeah, you feel huge.

When I put on Aquaman, it's like

there's no doubt about it.

When I'm in the suit, the eyes go in.

I could just be talking to you

and then I'll step out and come back in

and I'll just look at you and you're just like.

[chair squeaking]

Like no eye contact, it's like looking at like

a pit bull staring at you.

You know, I don't really act regal at all.

So you know, there's a certain

thing when you put on something,

you wanna change the way you feel,

and very important that wardrobe and makeup.

[Crew] And makeup. [crew laughing]

Obviously. [crew laughing]

Sorry, Jen.

[upbeat pop music]

Charles Baudelaire quote.

[Jason speaking French]

Which was always be drunken with wine,

with poetry, with virtue,

with the idea of always being

happy and being intoxicated with life.

I'm pretty giddy about life so it made sense.

Pride of gypsies.

It's just my handwriting, I have shitty handwriting so

it's just all, when you're like, what does that mean,

they're just scratches, that's just my handwriting.

So pride of gypsies because a lot of my friends were Leos

and they are lions

and we were all very houseless, I should say,

and I still am.

So we just kind of always moving in very

nomadic lifestyle of filming and

obviously joining the circus as an actor,

it just kind of felt appropriate for our production company.

There's two other people that have pride of gypsies,

my other two partners, Brian Mendoza and Thomas Pa'a.

On the roam, a lot of my team has the on the roam

and that's turned into what it is now.

This is like a core.

What it all started with and on the roam now is

most of my team and they have those tattoos.

The O, the T, it's like the crossroads,

and then R-O-A-M on each direction is roam.

And I have a show about that

and I use it for a lot of other things.

This one right here is diablo,

which is after my,

I guess one of the most important men I've ever known

and the most impactful man,

he died at like 81, I wanna say 82.

That's what we call him, El Diablo and he was amazing and so

it's just those mentors that

you meet and he's one of those people that just blew my

whole mind and well read, could just talk for hours,

and just enjoyed every moment

just sitting with him, talking.

Let's look, got my children are the most important.

I saved their name,

when they first wrote their name, Lola and Wolf,

so I saved that and obviously they're different in age,

so I just saved hers and then saved his and put it together,

so Lola Wolf on my heart.

I have tons of friends with just the most

random crazy shit and that perfectly describes them

and that's what's great about tattoos,

the little giggles and laughs and silly things, but

yeah, these have all have just been

the right calling to do it.

Oh yeah, there we go.

The one I never get to see.

It's always funny when I see it I'm like,

Whoa, it's so a lot.

It's very, it's very a lot.

But I don't ever see it and I look in the mirror, I'm like,

I can't see it.

It always looks pretty intense

when you're like, Geez Louise.

These were all tapped,

all the Hawaiians ones are tapped the traditional way.

It has the ihes right here,

there's a protection one right here.

Looks almost like a trident, but that's for protection.

Ihe's the spear.

I'd rather have it tapped.

I think it's pretty beautiful 'cause you're going back,

you know, centuries of humans being, you know,

making tattoos on themselves and mokos on themselves

and that's the sound that they heard.

It's like. [imitating tapping]

And it's a beautiful, interesting sound.

It doesn't sound like an annoying buzzing gun sound

and it just, it feels so different.

I feel like the gun is really

like taking a fork and like scraping your skin

instead of like, when you feel that tap it's,

you can cover more ground

'cause there's different lengths and sizes of 'em,

so I think it probably moves a little bit faster.

I think if you're gonna have precision in 'em,

like with these, when you get 'em tapped,

they'll be like the worst they've ever looked.

With gun, I feel like that's the best it's ever gonna look

because it'll eventually bleed out and all that kinda stuff.

When it's designed with this is that you'll have spaces,

but it will over time fill that out.

And if it's done right by a master,

it'll only get better and better.

My uncle Keone Nunes

is someone who rescued our culture

and perpetuated and traces our genealogy,

so my father has like a whole piece that goes down his leg

that he waited 'till he was probably 50 to do.

So I'll have to get that at some point

and then have another one that goes on the chest

that I'll probably do.

I mean I've never experienced anything

on that level before.

It was a really beautiful and purifying

and like I've never had that kind of pain before.

From here to here was

you get to meet your ancestors for sure.

You get to meet all of 'em.

My Aunty Momi, who's like love of my life

and my Uncle Buffalo did it at his house.

The moments where I really needed help the most,

I could just hear her laughing in the background,

just doing who she is

and then outta nowhere this hand goes into my mouth

as I'm like just breathing through it,

so much intense pain like where

every pour and every sockets just

oozing water to like survive.

She put salt pucka in my mouth

and you just taste those beautiful crystals of salt

and it totally like rescued me.

And she just knew and that's what the elders like,

she really saved me in that moment.

And the nice thing about this is it just

hair goes back and it's gone

and it's for me, you know, when it's shaved like this

you can see it, but when it's not, I'm like,

You're just covering up a little bit on my neck.

[bright pop music]

I don't have any regrets.

Regretting it's not gonna help me now,

this is where I'm at and did I learn from it?

Fuck yeah I did so

and they're all beautiful lessons.

[bright ethereal humming]