Joanna Schroeder didn’t think Chris Brown’s tattoo looked that much like Rihanna… Until she saw it side-by-side with the evidence photo from the night the singer battered his girlfriend.
I believe in redemption.
I believe people can stumble, and can recover from almost anything with a ton of honest and self-critical hard work. I’ve seen in it my own life, in relationships and with friends. I’ve had to do it myself.
When I heard that Rihanna admitted to Oprah that Chris Brown was still the great love of her life despite him having beaten her to a swollen, bloody pulp one night in his car, I was not outraged. I understood. I’m fortunate to be in a safe and happy marriage for the last 8 years, but I remember what it’s like to be young and to love someone who you know is terrible for you. Just because you love them doesn’t mean that you’re going to choose to be with them and put yourself in the line of fire over and over again.
And inside my heart (which may be childish and illogical) I hoped that Chris Brown could pull his shit together, do the work, and heal whatever caused him to batter the woman he apparently loved so very much. If he did the hard work and healed himself, and she did the same, I would be willing to part with the crowd who most likely would exploded in outrage if they ended up back together.
In truth, there would be no way for any of us, as the general public, to know whether Brown has done any of the necessary work to not only redeem himself, but also to heal himself and make himself into someone who could be a safe and loving partner. Like any character in the media, we’d have to base it upon what we learn through TV and magazines.
But Chris Brown sure doesn’t seem to be headed in the direction of someone who wants to heal himself. His most recent bizarro move is a grotesque tattoo of the mutilated face of a woman whom many assert bears a notable resemblance to Rihanna.
Chris Brown’s reps have stated for the record that the image is actually from a MAC Cosmetics ad—it’s supposed to be a skull—to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. The art work that the tattoo is allegedly based upon can be seen here, though if you ask me, the tattoo is pretty dramatically unlike the original art EW.com is featuring.
I looked at the photo of the tattoo and then Googled images of Rihanna to try to get a critical perspective. I came away thinking that while the tattoo is definitely a strange one—the woman is either beat up or a zombie—it doesn’t really look exactly like Rihanna. Check it out, see what you think:
So yeah, I mean that’s definitely a woman with a messed-up face… But Rihanna? Most likely not. I mean, who would be so stupid as to admit beating up your girlfriend, and then tattooing her disfigured image on his neck?
My mind was changed when I saw a side-by-side comparison of Brown’s new tattoo and the photo taken of Rihanna by the LAPD for evidence after Brown beat her up. It’s actually pretty startling.
The injuries on the tattoo are markedly more severe, but the image seems obviously designed to evoke Rihanna’s face. Could it be a warning? Is it a brag? Why would someone brag about having battered someone they love?
Amanda Marcotte quickly presented an explanation for that question, asserting that the classic image of the remorseful batterer is outdated and incorrect:
There’s a myth that men who beat and rape women just “lose control” and that after they act out, they sit around stewing in shame. That is because this is what these men tell people they are trying to ingratiate themselves with, in order to gain their acceptance and forgiveness. But inside, as many victims who have seen their true face can tell you, they are defiant. They believe they are entitled to dominate women, and they feel victimized by a world that doesn’t give them what they believe is theirs. They act out, looking for little ways to assert the right to dominate [what] they believe is theirs.
Now, I’m no Marcotte fangirl. I disagree with probably about 40% of what she writes, but something about this statement rings true to me. The batterers I’ve known have betrayed a certain pride over the pain they cause their partner. They want their partner to keep the abuse a secret, but they themselves say things like “Jodi knows better than to look twice at another guy” while making a punching motion with their hands. It’s always under the guise of being a joke, but it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you already know or suspect that the guy is abusing his wife. One man I knew who was a batterer would threaten to rape his wife, seemingly joking, in front of almost anyone. Turned out he had been raping her for almost as long as they were married.
As a child, my close friend and neighbor had an abusive father. He would start screaming and slap his wife, and we would all run from the house down the block to my front yard where we would wait for a while until we guessed it was safe to creep back to see if the screaming had stopped. Once or twice we’d end up walking down the block with a police officer to give a statement. This guy would apologize up and down to the police and swear he didn’t mean to touch his wife, he’d just tripped and they’d both fallen. Something absurd like that. But his wife would never press charges so as far as I can remember, he was never arrested for battering.
At least once after a beating he said, “And don’t think I won’t do it again” to her and their children, explaining, “If your mom didn’t make me so mad…”
While this is all anecdotal, the batterer’s brag feels very true to me, including with women who physically abuse their male partners (though to my knowledge, I’ve only known one female batterer). Lots of women love to brag about their husbands being scared to make them mad. It’s always weird to me… Why would you be proud of that?
So is that what Chris Brown is doing? Is this tattoo a brag about beating up Rihanna?
Could it be a reminder to himself not to ever do it again?
Perhaps it’s a tribute to zombie art… Maybe a message to AMC to cast Rihanna in the next season of Walking Dead?
Is there any chance that tattoo is actually based upon the MAC Cosmetics art shown on EW.com?
Seems doubtful to me… You know Occam’s Razor – the notion that the simplest explanation is usually the truth. What’s the simplest explanation here?
What do you think?
It just shows how incredibly strong his self-delusion and/ or denial is. To put a tattoo on your body–even if he meant it to resemble Dia de los Muertos–and not have the self-awareness to think, “Hey, wait, maybe this is a bad idea to put an image of a disfigured woman on my body given my history of beating up a woman. It could really reflect badly on me,” says to me that he probably genuinely has convinced himself that a) it never really happened, or b) it wasn’t as if it was anything BAD or anything. He genuinely believes… Read more »
When the details of the incident came out in the police report, it showed that Rhiannon’s (throw the first punwch) by taking her stiletto’s shoes off & hitting Chris over the head with the pointed part of her stilettos heel. Way isn’t she accountable at least partially in her part in it, this treatment of women like children who are not accountable like adults is the reason this behaviour is repeated often between couple’s as domestic violence stats show in all of these volatile sick abusive relationships that keep repeating itself sometimes with no police involvement in which one of… Read more »
I think Chris Brown is a sick dude…and he wants to get away with abusing her again and again….it must give him a sense of sick control (when everything else in his life must feel out of control)… My ex came back to stalk me decades later after I left him…he drove hours out of his way just to intimidate me (just because he was able to get away with it before)….except that I have changed (and I notified the authorities!)…. I pray for Rihanna….she is addicted to his drama and feels sorry for him….it is hard to just go… Read more »
Chris Brown is a country boy, high school drop out from the hinterlands of the Northern Neck of Virginia. Besides working with top professionals in the entertainment industry, he is almost certainly surrounded by a bunch of hangers on from from the same country gangsta milieu that he grew up in, that tell him that his shit doesn’t stink several times a day. He is probably incapable of any type of serious introspection, and has certainly not connected the fact that his mother was a victim of domestic violence, to his own actions. A year and a half ago he… Read more »
J P you’re saying something very important here. Ultimately, how responsible are we as consumers to CB’s success? Team Breezy is really powerful, and as we saw with all the women Tweeting during the Grammys (VMAs?) last year “I’d let him beat me any time”, this isn’t just a problem with Brown. This is a deep, complex problem harkening back to what we find acceptable behavior for men and women. Beyond that, as I said before, I am concerned about his mental state and hope he has people in his life who will help him get treatment if this is… Read more »
“There’s a myth that men who beat and rape women just “lose control” and that after they act out, they sit around stewing in shame. That is because this is what these men tell people they are trying to ingratiate themselves with, in order to gain their acceptance and forgiveness. But inside, as many victims who have seen their true face can tell you, they are defiant. They believe they are entitled to dominate women, and they feel victimized by a world that doesn’t give them what they believe is theirs. They act out, looking for little ways to assert… Read more »
dude , you should submit an article to GMP!!! You speak for us guys, i love nearly all of your comments. This is goodmenproject, this is site from guys to guys, we need more guys to speak,. Sometimes listening to women ( although we know they care about us ) is more than enough, i need to listen more to guys , guy like you! I notice your comments on GMP article are unique, you really honest about being a guy without have to be a feminist ( cough cough Hugo …) .This post is far better than this article… Read more »
I have one article on here about my mental illness, but I guess I’ll try write some more one day. Thanks for the support. 🙂
Chris Brown already receives all the hate from the world when he beat Rihanna., its imposible he make a tattoo bragging about that. Even if he is an evil, he have a brain, if he do that, his carreer would vanished. His carreer in music slowly building up again that accident, no way he would destroy it again. I’m sure he know that.
1) I’m not a fan of Chris Brown, I think battery is reprehensible, and I don’t think his music is all that great either. 2) That said, the image looks much more like a derivative of the Dia de los Muertos image than a representation of RiRi’s battered face. Look again – the lips, the nose, the shading. Some elements from the original are exactly duplicated, with embellishments by the artist. To the extent it resembles RiRi’s face, it’s because he beat her until she resembled the dead. 3) That said, it’s still remarkably poor taste. That? On his neck?… Read more »
So he’s either bragging or an f’ing idiot.
I think both.
I would tend to agree. It think it does look more like the MAC design than it does like Rihanna’s face post-beating. Simply enough, the size and shape of the lips, nose and eye on the non-zombie side don’t really look like Rihanna at all. As for the left side, if you want to make the case that it’s a woman’s face, it could be any woman’s face – nothing I see that would make it specifically her. Totally agree that it’s bad taste, though, and not a smart move on his part – not that I’ve come to expect… Read more »
I think the lips and eyes look exactly like Rihanna. Either way, it just shows what a bad move it was on his part.
I actually have concerns for him that this is part of an episode of mania… It is so ill-advised and non-sensical. I hope if he’s battling some mental health issues that he has people in his life who will support him to find a good treatment.
Honestly I think trying to say that tat is Rihanna or is some “memorial” of his attack on her is straw grasping. Just another attepmpt to forever make his life before, during, and after that attack, all about that attack. About 3 steps above seeing the Virgin Mary or Jesus in random objects like grilled cheese sandwiches and random splatters of paint. If you want to say its bad taste I can agree with that given the events of his life in question. But to try to actually link that tat to her? Overkill. Give this a few days to… Read more »
The simplest explanation is, Chris Brown is a horrible human being. He’s more than immature. He’s a sociopath. He belives he’s done nothing wrong. You know that thing most people have called a conscience? Like when you walk into a tattoo shop and think about getting some sick ink on your neck that may or may not look like the girl you nearly beat to death? Yeah, I thought so. I’ve never thought of that, either. Occam’s Razor applies here. Chris Brown is a horrible human being. I pray Rihanna is better than him and stays away forever and a… Read more »
Forgiveness is for gods. Humans have to protect themselves, and if that means no second chances for bastards like this, so be it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/13/man-admits-gouging-eyes-partner