Check out Israel Adesanya’s new face tattoo and what it means

The former UFC champion revealed his new ink, along with an inspirational message.

It’s not nearly on the level of Mike Tyson in terms of size or shock value, but [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] got a face tattoo.

The former UFC middleweight champion revealed his new ink, along with an inspirational message, Saturday on social media.

Check this out (via Twitter):

The old version of you must die before you come alive! 🐲

Why the dragon emoji with his message? Well, Adesanya’s tattoo says “dragon” in Arabic.

If you’re wondering about Adesanya’s inspiration for getting the tattoo over his eyebrow, the answer seems to be within the video – but only for a split second when this image flashes toward the end:

As you may know, Adesanya is a big fan of anime, and that image is of a character named Gaara from the anime series “Naruto,” who you can see has a tattoo on his forehead above his eyebrow.

About that, via Comic Book Resources:

One of Gaara’s best quotes in Naruto was when he said that his purpose is to love himself and fight only for himself. Therefore, his motto is “self-love.” He sticks by this motto so much that he used his sand to tattoo the word “love” on his forehead.

And this when you Google “What does Gaara’s tattoo mean?”:

As many fans know, on Gaara’s forehead is depicted the symbol “ai”, which signifies love. In the general context, it means “demon loving only himself.” Therefore, the main meaning of Gaara’s tattoo is a misunderstood person who is constantly looking for love.

So there you go. Adesanya, like Tyson, didn’t get a face tattoo just for the hell of it. There’s meaning behind it.

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