If you guessed that the guy dressed like a mummy on night one of The Bachelorette would make it to the final three, then bravo, because that’s exactly what Jonathon Johnson managed to do. The 27-year-old creative director was similar to Jeremy in that he seemed to come out of nowhere in the last few weeks; however, he was sadly still a bit too behind some of other guys to make it to the end. And so, in the second-to-last rose ceremony, Jenn sent Jonathon home, setting up a Marcus/Devin finale.
As revealed in Tuesday night’s Men Tell All, the Kansas City native is heading to Bachelor in Paradise…but that’s still a good nine months away from filming. So what’s on the agenda until then? And what does Jonathon point to as the reason why he and Jenn didn’t make it to the end?
Here, he opens up about Jenn’s final two guys, and the ironic tattoo you probably never noticed on his left hand.
Glamour: Wait, can we first talk about this rose tattoo on your hand?
Jonathon Johnson: I’m waiting for people to roast me for it. I’ve had this for four years. It’s a rose. It’s a really shitty rose, but it’s a rose. It was a Friday the 13th tattoo, where tattoo shops sometimes do deals where you get a tattoo for $30 or something.
So what prompted you to go with a rose?
Most of my tattoos don’t have any meaning. I get them because I like them. And I had never seen The Bachelorette before when I got this rose tattoo. Not even once. So there’s no [real story] there. But I have one that means the world to me. It’s a angel or a cherub with a black eye on it. It’s representative of my mom. She went through a lot. She got it matching with me actually on my birthday. And I have a Harry Potter tattoo on my hip.
Well now the rose tattoo probably takes on new meaning. What was this experience like for you looking back?
It’s incredible to watch back. I’m proud of the way I carried myself throughout. I didn’t put on a facade. I didn’t portray myself in a way that I was like, “I need to be the biggest guy in the room, the most masculine.” So watching the way that I carried myself throughout it, I was really proud to watch that back. And then the way I exited too, I was not able to get to emotions like that with anybody in the past. The fact that I became aware of it so quick, and Jenn was the one that helped me get there…it was amazing to watch back, and truly made me so happy.
Do you have a better understanding now of why Jenn didn’t give you the rose?
Watching [it back gave] me a lot of clarity. I think our relationship was potentially missing an X factor. With Marcus, she said that she was in love. With Devin, he said that he was in love. And with us, we’re in this amazing place. We have an amazing relationship, so much love for one another, and we care so much, but there’s just something that’s just not there. I don’t know if it’s the depth or that feeling of forever that we didn’t have. Everything else was so right.
