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Daily Inspiration Quote by Sanjay Dutt

"I have this huge lion tattoo embossed on my arm. I was a little worried as to how we would cover it up. But my makeup man covered the tattoo with makeup. It took close to two hours"

About this Quote

The lion tattoo is supposed to roar; instead, it becomes a logistical problem solved by a guy with a brush and a two-hour deadline. Sanjay Dutt’s line lands in that oddly revealing space where celebrity “edge” meets the industrial reality of image control. A lion on the arm signals permanence, swagger, maybe even a carefully curated hint of danger. Then the actor casually admits how easily that permanence can be erased on set, reduced to a time-consuming chore in a makeup chair.

The intent reads practical, even throwaway: a behind-the-scenes anecdote about covering ink for a role. The subtext is more interesting: stardom is built on reversibility. Tattoos are marketed as statements you can’t take back; cinema demands the opposite. Every “real” mark on the body becomes negotiable if it interferes with continuity, character, or brand. Dutt’s “little worried” isn’t about identity, it’s about production: schedules, close-ups, the tyranny of HD.

Context matters because Dutt’s public persona has long carried a mythos of toughness and transgression. The lion fits that story, but the makeup solution punctures it, reminding us that even the “bad boy” image is managed by a team. The quiet hero here is the unnamed makeup man, whose labor makes the star’s body adaptable, camera-ready, and narratively obedient.

That two-hour detail is the giveaway: authenticity is expensive, artifice is work, and the toughest symbol on screen can be softened into silence with enough foundation.

Quote Details

TopicLion
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Dutt, Sanjay. (n.d.). I have this huge lion tattoo embossed on my arm. I was a little worried as to how we would cover it up. But my makeup man covered the tattoo with makeup. It took close to two hours. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-this-huge-lion-tattoo-embossed-on-my-arm-i-81639/

Chicago Style
Dutt, Sanjay. "I have this huge lion tattoo embossed on my arm. I was a little worried as to how we would cover it up. But my makeup man covered the tattoo with makeup. It took close to two hours." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-this-huge-lion-tattoo-embossed-on-my-arm-i-81639/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I have this huge lion tattoo embossed on my arm. I was a little worried as to how we would cover it up. But my makeup man covered the tattoo with makeup. It took close to two hours." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-have-this-huge-lion-tattoo-embossed-on-my-arm-i-81639/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.

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Sanjay Dutt on Covering His Huge Lion Tattoo for a Role
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About the Author

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Sanjay Dutt (born July 29, 1959) is a Actor from India.

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