Jermaine Dupri — who dated Janet Jackson for years — told Page Six he doesn’t regret having his ex’s image tattooed down his right side.
“I have a tattoo of her — but I know her,” the superproducer, who dated Jackson from 2002 to 2009 said.
“People have tattoos of people that they do not know. So when I got the Janet tattoo people were like, ‘What if y’all break up?’ But this is someone I know. I don’t regret Janet’s tattoo — we have matching ones.”
Dupri, who also worked with Jackson as well as Usher, Jay-Z and Mariah Carey, said that when the couple first went public: “People were shocked when they found out we were dating. It’s the same way like my entire career. I am from Atlanta . . . Atlanta was not mainstream to people until now. So when you hear that ‘Janet Jackson is dating this guy from Atlanta,’ it sounds like Nebraska. Like why are you dating this guy, like out of all places?”
As far as their current status, “When people on Twitter say, ‘Why haven’t you said happy birthday to Janet Jackson?’. . . these people are stupid. It’s a person that I dated for almost 10 years. I can pick up the phone and call that person. So when you ask if I wish that I could get Janet Jackson back — it’s a phone call away.”
His doc, “Power, Influence and Hip-Hop The Remarkable Rise of So So Def” airs Thursday on WE TV.