Earlier this week, Michael Phelps face became a meme as he stared down, or should I say through, South African swimmer Chad le Clos, who decided he was going to shadowbox right in front of Phelps in the call room prior to the race. The face that Phelps had instantly spread across the internet as a meme and even NBC started using the image in the corner of the screen. Ricky Fung, owner of a tattoo shop in Toronto decided it was the perfect image to get a tattoo off and he shared the result on twitter. It came out pretty damn good.
@IamJoeSports
On Monday night, in the call room before the second semifinal heat of the 200-meter fly, le Clos began shadowboxing directly in front of Phelps. The most decorated Olympian of all time glared over, under and pretty much right through the South African. The moment was picked up by NBC’s cameras, prompting commentator Rowdy Gaines to say “I’ve never seen this before. Let’s just leave these cameras right here.” Before the night was through, Phelps’ glare of death would become the latest sports-driven meme.
That meme now has a permanent home on the calf of Fung. “I wasn’t even a big Phelps fan before this, and I’m not really a swim fan,” Fung said. “But just seeing him go out and win the way he has has been inspiring to me.”
“He had always talked about getting a sleeve of athletes and famous people,” said Livia Tsang, who works as a tattoo artist in the Toronto shop that Fung owns, Chronic Ink.
Tsang did the work and it wasn’t long after posting the tattoo online that the phone started ringing off the hook. Check the gallery to see the Phelps face tattoo.
