In 1980, Bob Stewart felt he had taught Tyson all he knew. He introduced the aspiring boxer to legendary boxing manager Constantine “Cus” D’Amato, who had a gym in Catskill, New York. D’Amato was known for taking personal interest in promising fighters, even providing them room and board in the home he shared with partner Camille Ewald. He had handled the careers of several successful boxers, including Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres, and he immediately recognized Tyson’s promise as a contender, telling him, “If you want to stay here, and if you want to listen, you could be the world heavyweight champion someday.”
On November 9, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tyson faced Holyfield in a title bout dubbed “Finally”. In a surprising turn of events, Holyfield, who was given virtually no chance to win by numerous commentators, defeated Tyson by TKO when referee Mitch Halpern stopped the bout in round eleven. Holyfield became the second boxer to win a heavyweight championship belt three times. Holyfield’s victory was marred by allegations from Tyson’s camp of Holyfield’s frequent headbutts during the bout. Although the headbutts were ruled accidental by the referee, they would become a point of contention in the rematch.
In Taiwan, facial tattoos of the Atayal people are called ptasan; they are used to demonstrate that an adult man can protect his homeland, and that an adult woman is qualified to weave cloth and perform housekeeping.
In his ‘Hotboxing podcast’, Tyson has discussed the incident umpteen times. It is no surprise that the moment remains as one of the finest memories. However, Tyson initially wanted to have hearts on his face.
However, Foreman’s first retirement was not the end of his boxing career. After being ordained as a Christian preacher and spending ten years spreading God’s word, Foreman shocked the world by returning to the ring after his so-called “hiatus.” Foreman won the heavyweight world title at the age of 45, making him the oldest boxing champion at the time.
But S. Victor Whitmill, a tattoo artist formerly of Las Vegas and currently from rural Missouri, doesn’t quite see the humor. Mr. Whitmill designed the tattoo for Mr. Tyson, called it “tribal tattoo,” and claims it as a copyrighted work.
Tobias is a content specialist with over a decade of experience writing about men’s lifestyles for a variety of publications around the world. When not on his computer he enjoys traveling, eating pizza, and watching 80s action films.
From a legal standpoint, box tattooing a copyrighted image upon someone’s skin could cause issues down the road, but it’s not a likely occurrence. For the copyright holder to successfully pursue a lawsuit against an artist, the copyright holder would have to prove that the use of their image by the artist has negatively impacted their business by either devaluing their work or affecting the potential market where their work is used.
The up-and-coming rapper has landed in a lot of headlines lately — not only because of his messy breakup with Noah Cyrus, but also because of his many face tattoos. Among the ink are the phrases “ZZZ” (apparently meant to signify his general sleepiness) and “Memento Mori” (a tribute to late rapper Mac Miller, which translates from Latin to “remember that you will die”).
Contrary to what one might expect, the tattoo was not planned to carry a deep spiritual meaning. Initially contemplating a design of multiple hearts, Tyson was steered towards a tribal pattern by his tattoo artist, Victor Perez, who suggested something that would be visually striking and more suited to Tyson’s fierce image. Mike Tyson’s face tattoo design draws inspiration from Maori tribal markings, which are traditional symbols of strength and courage — qualities that Tyson resonated with.
In 2012 sports journalist Mike Berardino of the “South Florida Sun Sentinel” asked Mike Tyson about the origin of the quotation: Website: South Florida Sun Sentinel, Article title: Mike Tyson explains one of his most famous quotes, Article author: Mike Berardino, Date on website: November 9, 2012 , Website description: … Continue reading
It’s been widely reported in the media that Mike Tyson’s recent facial tattoo is an “African Tribal Tattoo”. Tyson’s tattoo is in no way, shape or form an “African Tribal Tattoo”. It’s a straightforward bold graphic design tattoo done in black ink that is widely known within the tattooing community as belonging to the “tribal tattoo genre”, which is a heavily modified western tattoo style derived from the traditional tattooing normally associated with the peoples of Borneo, Polynesian and Micronesia. Tyson’s tattoo is an excellent example of the style of “tribal tattooing” that was revolutionized in it’s interpretation by tattoo artists like Leo Zuleta, and others, starting some two decades ago. Tyson’s tattoo is not even remotely similar to the traditional tattoos of African tribal peoples and has no specific meaning whatsoever beyond it’s meaning to Tyson himself.
