Mike Tyson has been known for his tribal face tattoo for over two decades, but what many people don’t know is that the former heavyweight champion initially had a completely different design in mind.
At 58 years old, Tyson is gearing up for a showdown with YouTube personality Jake Paul later this month. The tattoo, which became iconic after Tyson revealed it ahead of his 2013 fight with Clifford Etienne, was originally intended to symbolize something very different from what we see today.
Tyson, who got the tattoo as a tribute to the Maori tribe, initially wanted something much more playful—a face covered in “a bunch of hearts.” The idea, he admits, was a bit outlandish.
In a 2012 interview, Tyson recalled, “I just thought it was a cool tattoo. I was going to get a bunch of hearts and stuff. That would have been really stupid. I was going to be the man of hearts, baby. I was very close. Victor Perez, the tattoo artist, said ‘I ain’t doing that. I can’t do that.’”
Tyson went on to explain that he was feeling uncertain about his tattoo choice when Perez stepped in with a better suggestion. “I said, ‘What do you think I should get? Because I was confused.’ Victor Perez is a good guy, and he said, ‘Come back in a couple of days. I’m going to try and write up some stuff.’”
Two days later, Perez presented Tyson with a tribal design. Tyson was immediately drawn to it. “I said, ‘Woah, put another one over there.’ I was like, ‘This is cool, I like this.’ So he did it.”
Tyson was so pleased with the final design that he proudly showed it off in clubs, bars, and strip clubs, where it often sparked interest from women. “I would be in these dens, these clubs, and strip places sometimes and all the girls would say, ‘Oh, you’re very exotic. Where are you from? Where did your family come from? Why did you put this tattoo on your face?’”
Some of them even believed Tyson’s tattoo had cultural significance. “They said I looked like some tribesman or something. I ran into some chicks that happened to be from the Maori tribe, and they said, ‘Hey, you’ve got some of my tribe on your face,’” Tyson recalled, adding that one woman even showed him a similar tattoo on her body.
Tyson’s next big fight is set for November 15 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where he’ll take on Jake Paul in a highly anticipated match. The event will be streamed exclusively on Netflix.
Paul, who recently improved his professional record to 9-1 with a first-round victory over Ryan Bourland, is feeling confident heading into the fight. Meanwhile, Tyson has made it clear that he’s not intimidated by Paul’s rise to fame.
“There’s a fundamental difference between me and Jake,” Tyson said. “He’s a manufactured killer. Television and papers made him a killer. He’s manufactured. I’m a natural-born killer. That’s the difference.”
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