Mike Tyson has sported his tribal face tattoo for over 20 years but what many people don’t know is that he initially proposed something entirely different.
The 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, who will take on YouTube personality Jake Paul later this month, revealed his now-iconic face tattoo to the world ahead of his 2013 bout against Clifford Etienne.
But what remains relatively unknown about Tyson‘s ‘Maori’ tribe tribute is that he wanted the original design to feature symbols of love.
That’s right. The man known by many as ‘the baddest on the planet’ was keen on getting “a bunch of hearts” on his face.
Speaking about his plans in 2012, Tyson explained: “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’.”
Mike Tyson sported a new tattoo on the left side of his face ahead of his bout with Clifford Etienne. Image credit: Getty
Tyson continued: “I said ‘what do you think I should get? Because I was confused.’ Victor Perez is a good guy and said ‘come back in a couple of days I’m going to try and write up some stuff’.
“I waited around and two days later he called and said ‘Mike, I’ve got some tribal stuff’. I said ‘woah, put another one over there’. I was like ‘this is cool, I like this’. So he did it.
“I thought it was so hot. I would be in these dens, these clubs and strip places sometimes and all the girls said ‘oh you are very exotic, where are you from? Where did your family come from? Why did you put this tattoo on your face?’
“They said I looked like some tribesman or s***. 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’ and the lady pulled her pants down and she has this tattoo on her butt.”
As mentioned earlier, Tyson will face Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on November 15, with the event being streamed exclusively on Netflix.
Paul, who extended his professional record to 9-1 with a first-round victory over Ryan Bourland, is in confident spirits ahead of fight night, while Tyson delivered a brutal message to the YouTuber.
“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.”
Tyson’s last bout was a six-round exhibition against Roy Jones Jr in 2020.