Ryan Philippe Showed Us His Tattoos

When Ryan Phillippe lifts up his shirt in the middle of the bar at SoHo's Crosby Street Hotel, it's surprising that no one faints. He is, after all, a movie star— with taut muscles, smooth, caramel-colored skin, and a chiseled, ready-for-my-close-up mug. To think that someone might walk by, catch a glimpse, and collapse in excitement is not out of the question. Surely it's happened before. But not today. Today everyone remains calm.

To be fair, it isn't as tawdry as it sounds, Ryan has lifted his shirt simply to show off his tattoo—an image of his son Deacon's hand gripping Ryan's grandfather's hand—from the beloved artist Mister Cartoon, Like his career, Ryan takes his tattoos very seriously. "It's really beautiful and soulful," the 35-year-old actor says. "I went in there with this idea, and Cartoon loved it. He's a soulful guy, and I have a connection with him that's personal, I was so excited because he's the top hip-hop artist, and I'm such a hip-hop head. He's literally done everybody ... Kanye West, Xzibit. You go into his studio and there's a picture of him tattooing Eminem's skull. It's sort of like a brotherhood. Cartoon said, 'You're part of the family now.' It's a cool family to be a part of. He's done three on me now."

Movie star Ryan Phillippe has brought his grandfather and his son together in a touching tattoo on his back. The "Crash" star's son Deacon never got to meet his great-grandfather - but Phillippe likes to think the "most impressive man I've ever met" still watches over his kids.

And he has a large tattoo on his right shoulder to acknowledge the family link. The actor says, "He (grandfather) passed away before my son, Deacon, was born and so that tattoo is his hand holding my son's because they never got to meet. It means so much to me."

For most people, Cartoon's waiting list is months long, but it helps if you're a famous actor who's appeared in more than 20 movies, including Flags of Our Fathers, Crash, 54, Cruel Intentions, and this month's MacGruber, a big-budget comedy based on Saturday Night L/Ve's popular MacGyver spoof.

Ryan's show business beginnings are the stuff of Hollywood legend: He was discovered as a teen while getting a haircut in a Delaware barbershop. Soon after, he was starring in the soap opera One Life to Live, as the first gay teen ever to appear on daytime television. It was a risky career move—one of many ballsy chances he would take over the next two decades. "I was shunned by the church after I did it," Ryan recalls. "Ostracized, in a way. It was a nerve-racking job at 17, when you're just kind of understanding your sexuality. I didn't know any gay people. I was nervous and insecure. The other actors were like, 'You've got to speak up.¹ But it was an amazing learning experience. It grew me up."

At 19, while on location in England for his first big movie, White Squall, Ryan had another coming-of-age moment: He got his first tattoo. He takes a sip of his tequila cocktail and points to a Japanese character that stands for spirit or soul on his right arm.

"I went to this shady, dirty tattoo parlor because I wanted to commemorate my first major role," he says, smiling. "I grew up with no money or connections to the business. My family struggled, and finally I'd gotten to the place where I was making a film with Jeff Bridges. I felt like I'd arrived." Of his six tattoos, Ryan says his first is the most embarrassing. "It's kind of bleeding and looks like a butterfly. It's cliche. But I was 19—it should have been a cliche."

So would he ever get it covered? "No, but I did have a ladybug on my foot covered up. Its significance was with an ex. I put a stingray over the top of it. When people ask me why, I say, 'Any animal that could take down the Croco­dile Hunter deserves my respect.'"

The ex?

"An ex," he says, looking uncomfortable.

You can't blame the guy for shifting in his seat. The ex in question is Reese Witherspoon, who Ryan was married to from 1999 to 2006 (they have two children, Ava, 10, and Deacon, 6). Theirs was a high-profile romance, and when they broke up, amid rumors of his alleged infidelity with his Stop-Loss costar Abbie Cornish, The Golden Couple's personal business was suddenly splashed all over the tabloids.

It was rough for Ryan, who was being put through the wringer in the press. Around that time, he asked Cartoon to change the blue cross tattoo on his leg into a sword with a Latin saying that means, essentially, "words cannot harm me." "I was in this place where I was tired of being talked shit about," Ryan says. "No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. But I am a decent person. I got so sick of being told how shitty I was. I like the fact that it feels like I can just take [the sword] off my leg."

Unfortunately for him, the gossip rag chatter and Internet coverage didn't stop with his ex-wife: In February, Ryan was involved in a he said-she said breakup with the aforementioned Abbie Cornish, It was not a clean split: Her publicist released a statement that said she broke up with him and moved out of their Los Angeles home. The next day, his publicist released a statement that he broke up with her and asked her to move out,

Not wanting to reveal the details of their relationship, Ryan does offer some broad strokes: "Those things are tricky, man. In this business, it's like,love movies and I want to be an actor. That's where it begins and ends with me. Now I'm realizing, yeah, I've got to play the game a little bit more."

To that end, Ryan signed on to star in this spring's MacGruber, the first big-budget comedy of his career. The movie, starring SNL's Will Forte and Kristen Wiig, and helmed by The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone, is a huge departure for Ryan, who has appeared in his share of downers. "MacGruber is to '80s action movies what Austin Powers was to Bond movies," he says. "When you do dramas—and a lot of the movies I've been in, I wouldn't say they're, like, message movies or political movies, but the themes are heavy: racism, war, espionage—the mood pervades. If it's a dramatic scene, there's tension on set. This was the exact opposite, I would get there and laugh from morning until night. I was out of my element in a great way,"