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Inked Mag Staff

August 12th, 2016

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The Michael Phelps Death Stare Will Live on Forever in Tattoo Form

At the London Olympics four years ago we had McKayla Maroney and her unimpressed look, now we have Michael Phelps and his terrifying #PhelpsFace. While it would be easy to remember…

At the London Olympics four years ago we had McKayla Maroney and her unimpressed look, now we have Michael Phelps and his terrifying #PhelpsFace. While it would be easy to remember Phelps for his insane level of dominance in the swimming pool and the literal mountain of gold medals he must have stashed in a closet somewhere, there’s something a little bit more fun in paying homage to a moment of levity. At least one person agrees with us as there is now a tattoo of the infamous #PhelpsFace.

Toronto based tattoo artist Livia Tsang shared a photo of the new black and grey portrait late on Thursday afternoon. And we can say one thing about the tattoo—it looks just as fierce as Phelps does prior to jumping in the pool and laying waste to the competition.

For those of you who aren’t aware of the genesis of the Rio Olympics’ most famous meme let me paint a picture for you. Phelps is getting ready to race in a semifinal of the 200 meter butterfly. He’s got his favorite tunes pumping into his headphone, his hood up and is likely trying to visualize the race in front of him. As this is going on South African rival Chad le Clos is directly in front of the American dancing around, shadow boxing and shaking himself out. As le Clos tries to loosen up Phelps stares right through him. Two things are immediately obvious at the moments—Phelps is a bad man and there is no way in hell he was going to lose this race to le Clos.

Tsang’s tattoo is the perfect way to hold that moment in time forever. Looking into the eyes of Tattoo Phelps helps you understand the fear that must be running through each and every one of the iconic swimmer’s opponents. Here’s to hoping that we some more awesome tattoos inspired by this year’s Olympics. But please, please, please don’t make it a tattoo of this. That would be horrifying.

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