Sophia Bush Alludes to Getting Tattoo After Chad Michael Murray Split: 'Closing a Personal Chapter'

Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray
Sophia Bush, Chad Michael Murray
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Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images; David Livingston/Getty Images

Sophia Bush is looking back on her first experience getting inked.

The Love, Victor actress, 39, spoke about the decision to get body art during a recent episode of her Drama Queens podcast with co-hosts Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton as they dissected an episode of One Tree Hill that involved Chad Michael Murray's character Lucas' botched tattoo.

"I didn't get my first tattoo until I was 23," she said, adding of the inspiration, "I'm gonna embarrass myself — you guys, I love Goldie Hawn so much. I was closing a personal chapter in my life at the time ... and I read Goldie's book A Lotus Grows in the Mud. It, like, changed my life."

Bush didn't explicitly say that the tattoo followed her breakup with Murray, though their split happened when she was 23.

She and Murray met on the set of the teen drama and began dating in 2003. They tied the knot in April 2005 in an oceanfront ceremony in Santa Monica but separated just five months later. Their divorce was finalized in December 2006. (Murray, 40, later married Sarah Roemer in 2015 and the couple shares two children.)

RELATED: Sophia Bush Explains Why She Doesn't Talk About Ex Chad Michael Murray: 'It's Not Worth My Time'

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Bush explained that she left notes in the margins of her copy of Hawn's 2005 book that she calls "the inside of my heart" and is "passed around a group of women going through transitions" to help them.

The actress got the tattoo at The Shamrock on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Bush said she now has seven tattoos that she has "wrapped up ever since" getting, six of them discreetly hidden with white ink.

RELATED VIDEO: Hilarie Burton, Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz on Their Longtime Friendship: 'This Is What Real Sisterhood Is'

Bush recently got engaged to Grant Hughes. Earlier this month, she shared the exciting news on Instagram with a photo of her now-fiancé proposing to her on a boat during their getaway at Lake Como in Italy.

"So it turns out that being your favorite person's favorite person is the actual best feeling on planet Earth 💫 #YES," Bush captioned the sweet photo. "Thank you to @comoclassicboats and @bottega53 for helping my favorite human plan the most incredible, moving surprise of my life. My heart. It bursts."