Poor Iron Mike. Ever since he burst on to the scene as the world's most exciting hitter of faces in the 1980s he's had a sea of people looking to get rich off his fearsome uppercut. First there was Don King, his manager and a man who seemingly spent much of Tyson's earnings on hair gel. Then came the hangers-on, the bling-heavy part-time bezzy mates leeching from his pockets, plus a few ostentatious Siberian tigers, who no doubt refused to eat anything but poached swans. Well, now it's the turn of his tattooist
S Victor Whitmill, who designed Tyson's distinctive facial pattern, has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros for "unauthorised exploitation" of his artwork in their upcoming film The Hangover Part Two. "Warner Bros Entertainment - without attempting to contact Mr Whitmill, obtain his permission, or credit his creation - has copied Mr Whitmill's Original Tattoo and placed it on the face of another actor," his court papers note.
The film, which, like the first, is likely to surround the "hilarious consequences" of a stag party, apparently sees the character Stu Price wake up to hysterically discover that he has a tattoo identical to Tyson's. What fun. But according to Whitmill, The Baddest Man on The Planet signed a release form granting him rights to the design.
Whether Whitmill gets the compensation or not, he might soon be hearing from a few Polynesians, given the similarity the design bears to the distinctive Maori tattoos that have been around for several hundred years.
