Chris Brown may have rekindled his romance with Rihanna, but he says a shocking new tattoo on his neck isn't an homage to his former flame despite the eerie resemblance.
The famously hot-tempered R&B star showed off some fresh ink on the red carpet earlier this month, displaying a large tattoo of a woman's face on the side of his neck.
The black-and-white image shows a woman whose bone structure, arched eyebrows and full lips bear a striking similarity to Brown's onetime girlfriend Rihanna, but the tattoo version bears the scars of a serious beating.
Has Chris Brown Tattooed Rihanna On His Neck?
Her lips are covered in stitches while she looks like she has a black eye and bruising on the right side of her face.
"His tattoo is a sugar skull (associated with the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead) and a MAC cosmetics design he saw, " the rep told ABCNews.com as controversy swirled around the photo. "It is not Rihanna or an abused woman as erroneously reported."
Nevertheless, the image is an unpleasant reminder of the infamous night Brown brutally assaulted Rihanna in 2009 after the Grammy Awards, causing her to be hospitalized with bruises on her face.
Did Chris Brown Get A Tattoo Of Rihanna's Battered Face?
Initially separated by a restraining order, the couple have since seemed to reconcile, getting closer than ever this week as Rihanna was seen kissing Brown on the lips at the VMAs.
"I truly love him, " she told Oprah through tears in an interview last month, in which she confirmed the pair continue to have a "very close friendship" since the restraining order was dropped. "I just felt like he made that mistake because he needed help."
"The main thing for me is that he is at peace, " she said. "I'm not at peace if he is unhappy or he is still lonely. I care. It actually matters that he finds peace."The singer's body art may or may not be intended to look like Rihanna, but it does look like a battered woman, which recalls the biggest scandal of his career, and sends a terrible message
Chris Brown: New Tattoo Is Not Rihanna
I n 2009, when I interviewed Rihanna for the Guardian, I asked whether she might use her experiences at the hands of ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, to help other victims of domestic violence. Brown had been sentenced some months before, for an attack which, according to police documents, involved him shoving Rihanna's head against a car window, punching her repeatedly in the face, biting her left ear and fingers, and placing her in a headlock until she began to lose consciousness. Rihanna was clear. She would like to help others, she said, but "I don't want that stamp going across my head as a victim of domestic violence. As much as I was, that's a part of my life that I want to throw away, that I never want to go through again."
I thought of that conversation, her wish not to be branded by her experiences, when looking at Chris Brown's new neck tattoo. As many have noted, it looks surprisingly like the image of Rihanna that circulated after that attack, a woman with her eyes bruised, lips split, seriously battered. Sources have told gossip website TMZ that it's not of Rihanna, but "a random woman".
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But is she meant to look beaten? Early sketches suggest some sort of decoration on her face, rather than bruising, so it's possible the finished article is being misconstrued. In that case, Brown should think twice about revisiting the tattoo artist in question. Because there's no doubt the image calls to mind the biggest scandal of his career, looks absolutely like a pummeled woman, and is in those terms completely sickening.
Chris Brown Denies Neck Tattoo Of Beaten Woman Is Rihanna's Face
What's also depressing is that if this is, in fact, the intention, it would actually mark a natural next step in Brown's career path. While he might have been expected to be contrite in the wake of the 2009 attack, he has actually built a strong and burgeoning profile by embracing a bad boy image. He started out as a clean-cut teenager, the kind of singer who made guest appearances on Disney shows, but in the intervening years he has responded angrily to questions about the attack on a breakfast TV show, and after success at the Grammys, tweeted "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate FUCK OFF!" So he is not exactly keeping his head down and making amends.
He has been rewarded with enormous success, soaring adulation. He's had both a number one single and album in the UK this year, having never charted anything like so highly before the attack. And there are now rumours he may get back together with Rihanna. At the MTV video music awards last week, the two were seen to embrace, and she spoke warmly about him in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, describing him as "the love of my life".
If there's one thing more sickening than Brown's new tattoo, it's those who have criticised Rihanna for her renewed relationship with him, suggesting she won't deserve sympathy if she's hurt again. Every time people do this – and many even blamed her for the attack itself – I am reminded of another conversation we had in that 2009 interview, in which we spoke about her relationship with her father, Ronald, a former drug addict who had physically abused her mother. His behaviour had made her hate him, she told me: "Then, one of my school friends, who I was very close to, she knew, and she always used to say, 'You can't hate your father, ' that you have to love him, at the end of the day, because he's your father. So I listened, as much as it took out of me."
Rihanna Tattoo Hi Res Stock Photography And Images
Rihanna has experience of forgiving men who act brutally, but that forgiveness doesn't carry any responsibility for being hurt. When someone is beaten, the only person with responsibility is the one with the balled-up fist. If Chris Brown's body art reminds us of anything, it should be that.
I n 2009, when I interviewed Rihanna for the Guardian, I asked whether she might use her experiences at the hands of ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, to help other victims of domestic violence. Brown had been sentenced some months before, for an attack which, according to police documents, involved him shoving Rihanna's head against a car window, punching her repeatedly in the face, biting her left ear and fingers, and placing her in a headlock until she began to lose consciousness. Rihanna was clear. She would like to help others, she said, but "I don't want that stamp going across my head as a victim of domestic violence. As much as I was, that's a part of my life that I want to throw away, that I never want to go through again."
I thought of that conversation, her wish not to be branded by her experiences, when looking at Chris Brown's new neck tattoo. As many have noted, it looks surprisingly like the image of Rihanna that circulated after that attack, a woman with her eyes bruised, lips split, seriously battered. Sources have told gossip website TMZ that it's not of Rihanna, but "a random woman".
But is she meant to look beaten? Early sketches suggest some sort of decoration on her face, rather than bruising, so it's possible the finished article is being misconstrued. In that case, Brown should think twice about revisiting the tattoo artist in question. Because there's no doubt the image calls to mind the biggest scandal of his career, looks absolutely like a pummeled woman, and is in those terms completely sickening.
Chris Brown Denies Neck Tattoo Of Beaten Woman Is Rihanna's Face
What's also depressing is that if this is, in fact, the intention, it would actually mark a natural next step in Brown's career path. While he might have been expected to be contrite in the wake of the 2009 attack, he has actually built a strong and burgeoning profile by embracing a bad boy image. He started out as a clean-cut teenager, the kind of singer who made guest appearances on Disney shows, but in the intervening years he has responded angrily to questions about the attack on a breakfast TV show, and after success at the Grammys, tweeted "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate FUCK OFF!" So he is not exactly keeping his head down and making amends.
He has been rewarded with enormous success, soaring adulation. He's had both a number one single and album in the UK this year, having never charted anything like so highly before the attack. And there are now rumours he may get back together with Rihanna. At the MTV video music awards last week, the two were seen to embrace, and she spoke warmly about him in a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, describing him as "the love of my life".
If there's one thing more sickening than Brown's new tattoo, it's those who have criticised Rihanna for her renewed relationship with him, suggesting she won't deserve sympathy if she's hurt again. Every time people do this – and many even blamed her for the attack itself – I am reminded of another conversation we had in that 2009 interview, in which we spoke about her relationship with her father, Ronald, a former drug addict who had physically abused her mother. His behaviour had made her hate him, she told me: "Then, one of my school friends, who I was very close to, she knew, and she always used to say, 'You can't hate your father, ' that you have to love him, at the end of the day, because he's your father. So I listened, as much as it took out of me."
Rihanna Tattoo Hi Res Stock Photography And Images
Rihanna has experience of forgiving men who act brutally, but that forgiveness doesn't carry any responsibility for being hurt. When someone is beaten, the only person with responsibility is the one with the balled-up fist. If Chris Brown's body art reminds us of anything, it should be that.
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