Did Mike Tyson Get His Tattoo Removed?

Battle legend 'Iron' Mike Tyson is without a doubt one of the most iconic figures in sports history.

Tyson began his career in 1985 and compiled an impressive 37 straight victories on his way to becoming the WBC, WBA, and IBF heavyweight world champion.

Inside the ring, Mike Tyson was known for his uncanny speed and explosive knockout ability, and became one of the about feared competitors in battle'due south heavyweight segmentation during the late 80's and early 90'south.

As cracking equally his accomplishments are in the battle band, Tyson'due south legacy will ever include the many controversies that he faced in his career, including his imprisonment and the infamous ear-bitter incident against Evander Holyfield.

One other part of Mike Tyson's personal that will likely live on in pop culture forever is his iconic face tattoo.

Mike Tyson is has a lot of tattoos all over his body, only the 1 on his face is by far the most recognizable:

The story behind Mike Tyson's face up tattoo

In 2003, just before his fight against Clifford Etienne, Mike Tyson got a tattoo on his face. According to the heavyweight boxer himself, he initially wanted hearts, but the tattoo artist would non do it:

"I just thought it was a cool tattoo. I was going to get a bunch of hearts and stuff, and that would have been actually stupid. I was going to be the human being of hearts, baby. Victor Perez, the tattoo artist said 'I own't doing that. I can't do that'" Tyson said in an interview with Graham Bensinger.

Tyson then ended upward with a tribal blueprint, which was a popular tattoo pattern back and then:

"I waited around and two days later [Victor Perez] chosen and said 'Mike, I've got some tribal stuff'. I said 'woah, put some other one over at that place'. I was like 'this is absurd, I similar this'. And so he did information technology."

Did Mike Tyson take his face tattoo removed?

In 2013, Mike Tyson tweeted that he was in the process of getting his facial ink removed:

At the doctors office this morning. Getting this tattoo removed from my face. This is going to be painful.
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) Apr 1, 2013

"At the doctors role this morning. Getting this tattoo removed from my face. This is going to be painful."

The tweet ended upward being an April Fool's joke, and the boxing legend continues to habiliment the tattoo on his face up proudly up to this day.

In 2016 interview with Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated, Tyson shared that he has no regrets in getting the face up tattoo:

"No. A lot of stuff happened out of this tattoo, a lot of skilful stuff. Other immature athletes come to me and said, It's because of y'all they telephone call it the Mike Tyson."

Last November 29th, Mike Tyson returned to the boxing ring for the outset time since 2005 when he faced fellow legend Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition bout.