Mike Tyson has sported the iconic tattoo since 2003.
‘Iron Mike’ is one of the most recognizable people on the planet, but if he had gotten his way, he would have looked far less intimidating.
“I was going to get a bunch of hearts and stuff. That would have been really stupid,” he explained.
“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.’”
“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, ‘Whoa, 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 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,’ and the lady pulled her pants down, and she has this tattoo on her butt.”
