Recent tattoos include a tribal tattoo on Paul’s arm and his shins. The longest tattoo completed was by his ribs, which took 22 hours. “The Problem Child” has a favorite tattoo, a “Bayou Boys” mark, an inside joke between him and his friend Jasper.
While the tattoo itself might appear intimidating to some, its purpose goes beyond mere aesthetics. Tyson’s face tattoo holds a profound personal philosophy that encompasses his beliefs, values, and the wisdom he acquired over the years.
He wasn’t bored. He wasn’t trying to be different. Mike Tyson once admitted that the unique tattoo that covers the left side of his face happened because he hated himself so much. The former heavyweight champion of the world has been on an emotional rollercoaster throughout his life. He decided to ink up his face during one of the lower points in his life.
Getting a facial tattoo is a bold move by any standard, and for Mike Tyson, it was also an act of rebellion. It marked his defiance against societal norms and the expectations placed on him by the world of professional sports and celebrity. This tattoo was a way for Tyson to take control over his own image and narrative, making a statement that he lived by his own rules.
Both are consenting adults and if they want to fight and the TDLR approves Tyson with a clean bill of health, then no one can really stand see in bing.com their way. These are the kinds of spectacles that get put on these days in combat sports and this is the most polarizing one yet. The best-case scenario is the fight gets classified as an exhibition and the two have a friendly, yet physical sparring match, kind of like Tyson vs. Jones Jr. As Coppinger noted, those two weren’t throwing with bad intentions back in November 2020, but the crowd still went home satisfied with the event. Frankly, this is all about entertainment anyway, not real sports competition. And that’s OK if taken at face value. — Raimondi
Tyson has six biological children, who range in age from newborn to 20, born of three different women. A seventh child, a daughter named Exodus, died at age 4 in May 2009 at her mother’s home in Phoenix; she was strangled when her neck was caught in a cord hanging from a treadmill. Tyson caught a plane immediately upon receiving a call from Sol Xochitl, Exodus’s mother, about the accident, but by the time he arrived at the hospital, the little girl was already brain-dead. The loss of his daughter critically altered his once-tentative grasp on his own accountability. To this day, he blames himself for not being there. “It made me feel very irresponsible,” he says simply. “I wish she were here to hang out with Milan.” The effects of the tragedy reverberated throughout Tyson’s extended family: “The kids were very close to Exodus, and when she died we were all devastated,” says Monica Turner, his second wife. “I think that changed Mike forever.” Tyson refers to Exodus repeatedly during our conversations with evident sadness and insists on keeping her memory alive by counting her among his living children.
Tyson’s new, mellowed state has finally allowed him to get real about his decision to get the tattoo. It boils down to caprice that reflects his drug-addled period. In an interview from 2012, posted on YouTube, Tyson states that he was intending to get “a bunch of hearts and stuff” on his face because he wanted to be known as “The Man of Hearts.” Tyson’s tattoo artist, Victor Perez, straight-up refused, and instead drafted some tribal patterns. “I just thought it was so hot,” Tyson says. “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?'”
Ever since the first fights involving YouTube stars KSI and Joe Weller back in 2017, people from all walks of life – from TikTok to music – have slipped on the gloves and stepped into the ring, with the exhibition demographic of the sport growing rapidly.
While the outcome of the case was not precedential, Perry’s comments were the first time that a government official commented on the copyrightability of tattoos. They were also significant in drawing a distinction between the tattoo’s design and application. Despite the case settling, it prompted further discussion of the topic and speculation as to how the case might have proceeded if it had gone to trial.
Tyson bought the place from a friend, the N.B.A. player Jalen Rose, in the down market of early 2007. (The property was originally valued at $3 million; Tyson paid around $1.7 million for it.) It was built, he says, as a party house, but he and Kiki have been pushing it in the direction of a more traditional family home, with clearly defined living areas and childproofed touches, like the Plexiglas panels on the stair railing. Tyson mentioned that he bought the house because it reminded him of a New York loft, despite the fact that he says there’s little he misses about his hometown aside from the pigeon competitions and seeing people from his old stomping grounds. “I have a big affinity with the guys in my neighborhood . . . the guys with the broken English and stuff . . . and then the pigeon world, it’s not like there’s a glass ceiling, the pigeon world keeps evolving with time. There are new diseases, there have to be serums for the new diseases,” he said, sounding momentarily like a biochemist, albeit one with an endearing lisp. “Antibodies.”
