David Letterman hated Justin Bieber's tattoos and even tried to 'remove' one in wild TV moment
It seems like David Letterman isn't a big fan of tattoos! In a June 2012 episode of 'The Late Show with David Letterman', the legendary talk show host was joined by the Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, who came on the program to promote his third studio album, 'Believe.' As per a report by The Things, at one point, Letterman asked Bieber about the new ink on his arm, “Explain this to me. Is that a new tattoo?” In his response, Bieber said, "This is a new tattoo." Shortly afterward, an unimpressed Letterman quipped, “Oh God, how many do you have?” to which Bieber retorted, “I have a couple, just a couple,” before Letterman snapped, “Well, tell me that's the last one.”
Then, the 'Baby' hitmaker, who seemed pretty nervous, replied, "It might be..." Following that, Letterman uttered, "No, it is. I mean, honestly, how does that help how you look having that tattoo?" to which Bieber responded, "Well, it doesn't not help how I look. Yesterday my album came out and it was an important day for me, so I got 'Believe'..." Soon after, Letterman got out of his chair and grabbed Bieber's arm and tried to get rid of the tattoo by rubbing it while saying, “Come on, get it off of there!”
At that moment, Bieber screamed, "Eh! Eh! Eh!” a couple of times before Letterman let go of his hand. Speaking of his tattoo, Bieber exclaimed, "This is brand new." Then, Bieber didn't leave the topic without poking some fun at the 77-year-old comedian by saying, “Grandpas!” On the other hand, Letterman further stated, "Do me a favour - don't go nuts, you know what I mean? Because more and more you see people with the 'mural' [gestures all the way up and down his arms] like the Sistine Chapel... it's too much."
Later in the episode, Letterman apologized to Bieber for his inappropriate behavior. According to a report by the Toronto Sun, before Bieber took over the stage to perform, Letterman asked him, “Are you all right? Is your tattoo OK? Everyone said, well, it's a brand-new tattoo, and I hurt your tattoo. I'm sorry I've never had a tattoo, so I don't know, then other people said I was snappish." Bieber handled the situation with a lot of grace and told Letterman, “Everything's great. It's all good. You're fine. Don't worry. You were not snappish. You were fine. I think I expect it.”
Once the episode dropped, Letterman received immense backlash from the viewers for his actions. An X user wrote, "Justin should never go to one of David Letterman's interviews ever again. That old man doesn't deserve Justin on his show." Followed by a second user who commented, "David Letterman was so rude to Justin Bieber, very aggressive and stupid, that old man should not be on TV anymore." Another user chimed in, "David Letterman is a dick. I mean, I don't exactly love tattoos either, but he was so rude to Justin about his new tattoo. Just leave him be." A user went on to say, "How dare David Letterman be mean to Justin... Kinda does really upset me... I love jb." One user said, "My god, I really dislike David Letterman. Why is Justin even on here? He's so mean to him. I want to punch his face."
