UFC Fighter Israel Adesanya Breaks Down His Tattoos | GQ Sports

if you're getting a tattoo for the first time my advice is don't overthink it go for it don't like hesitate like a fight if I want to throw a jab and I hesitate it's something to work you know I could get countered its [ __ ] it you're gonna die anyway I won't point and this isn't gonna be a final form you're gonna go somewhere else hey what's up guys this is Israel and it's only a future middleweight UFC champion and I'm gonna give you a tour of my tattoos the last stop and recording that name from the TV series the avatar I just related so much to the message and the characters in the show and and the leader Noah and the show his destiny yet to realize he was an avatar by mastering all the elements and I feel the same way in this where I'm like I have to master all the elements and martial arts to realize that I'm the avatar of this world he had cool tattoos the arrow all over his body before head like it was Airbender tattoos and I just thought they were cool and never he went so to have an avatar state he they lit up not that one if I did get the arrow do what would be on my forehead be be somewhere else what yeah I got when I show you my body of work you'll see where all the avatars person comes from I was 22 when I got my first tattoo coming from a Nigerian household even getting these I hide them for about a week and a half but um yeah tattoo same thing and athletes for my own sake dancing all right that's enough and then I kept playing anymore did you get she says no face tattoos and everyone say is that my first tattoo I won't show cos is really personal my first one is like a test one when my second one was like this is broken native with the Africa piece I got them at the same time I just kind of went for the jugular straight away cuz I know that's a sore spot a lot of people say oh you know because it's close to the bone so even when I was getting this done in the middle of Africa I remember like dozing off because it was already like maybe six hours in five hours in so it was just I was used to the pain already broken native I coined that name when I was younger before crude that I was running with Dance Crew over the years I just realized that's be my whole life story I've always been like the odd one out you know the the bat amongst does the pebble among stones as a layabout kinda broken yeah I just like always sounds broken native you look at my chest you see you know that's great it's fun because I haven't outlined my jury in it so yeah I feel like Superman when I rock it know so I need the S on my chest I go after coordinator one guy does most my tattoos his name's Ron Dawson from stain skin tattoos in Auckland three kings the avatar my favorite character from the show talk she's right here so she's my favorite actor from the show she's blind so she has to navigate the world through the soles of her feet by sending out vibrations like they're kind of like an elephant or a bat or a dolphin pretty cool I just like the way it looks on her on the screen when she does it and that's not she fights as well and yeah she's badass I have a werewolf on my right shoulder it doesn't really represent anything I've just always loved dogs being a werewolf would be so cool because I get to be you know the animal that I love the most and human at the same time and just the way they transform it's cool and sometimes it's being a couple of times where I felt like I want to run around make it like a werewolf so I love Deadpool and this like it's a picture on the cover of a comic I saw on time and for whatever reason I just thought that looks cool I only put down my body I've always wanted Deadpool he's funny he's effeminate he's he's a badass also heals fast which I do as well there's an iconic photo of me dancing and someone caught that photo with it and it just looked exactly like my tattoo so weird how life can imitate art and it's on my body given before I knew it I wasn't planning it what's so cool a lot of my tattoos don't really have meanings they just they look cool within the meaning kind of makes itself known to me later on after I get them this means this and this and that's cool this is art this is like what you want it to be but for me I'm crazy I like to do things my way so I might get something and then like the meaning will come to me later on like that's why I got it Calvin and Hobbes and sigh my right bicep the Calvin and Hobbes is a comic I used to read in high school in the library I read all the comics that they had of Calvin and Hobbes and they're in the box is chilling Oh like doing something playing around and there's like the power of imagination so I'm just gonna my bicycle tower on my stomach I've got the it's a mix of two of my favorite animates the ocean of moon spirit from the avatar series and the nine tails seal from Naruto for whatever reason that just made it look cool I thought with the yin and yang of the of the ocean of moon spirit and then the nine tails seal so I kind of just like meshed all my favorite shows together and I thought it turned out well that's my dog his name's millionaire actually I named a millionaire for a reason because I knew what was coming my way and we've been through so much like me and him we have our own little relationship and he's just like literally like he's actually a friend of mine and we're cool I keep saying like if he could talk it'd be he'll know too much way too much about me and he showed me loyalty throughout his life so the best way I can show him loyalty is put him on me he'd never know that but you know I'm sure he appreciates me regardless my back I haven't finished it yet but what this dragon I designed it's sort of Japanese II on the style of it broad was telling me like that's the biggest piece of unbroken skin is from the top of your neck to the back your knees and you really want to make that one pop and I was like yeah do a dragon I call him Kunta Kinte like I wanted to be a bit African so I made it a crocodile cuz the crocodile pretty much is a dragon so I just made it a crocodile dragon that just kind of goes up my back I came to this finish till I shade it all in and really make a stand out I think he's gonna darken the top fit as well like a negative behind it just gonna really pop not yet no yeah I'm looking at Rockley on my calf I have a whole inbox of like tattoo ideas and there's one I did oh I should show you my shaky shirt and I have someone else does it first I don't care why just I designed it myself because I thought it'd look cool I don't know where I'm gonna put it yet but it's gonna be somewhere epic it's just having time because I don't like to train after I get a tattoo I like to give it like a few like maybe at least six to seven weeks just to let it heal properly before I have to like grapple and he tattooed dedicated to my personal fight career not yet but there will be on I spy he was a boxer in that movie so every time you knock someone out here like a one like this point one two one two three four so yeah like 50-something I remember I've had over a hundred fights okay if we're talking knockouts 29 in kickboxing or 13 or 14 in MMA one in boxing on the streets ha ha ha ha allegedly that's it thanks for checking out my tattoos all over my body I'll be back for part two when I'm the middleweight champ of the world

Channel: GQ Sports

Views: 3,527,803

Keywords: gqtattootour, ufc, israel adesanya, israel adesanya 2019, israel adesanya interview, israel adesanya gq, israel adesanya tattoo, israel adesanya tattoos, israel adesanya ufc, tattoo, tattoo tour, tattoo tours, tattoos, tattoo art, tattoo artist, tattoo artists, tatoo, tatoos, how to tattoo, tattooing, tattoo stories, celeb tattoos, celebrity tattoo, celebrity tattoos, israel adesanya tattoo tour, tattoo tour gq, israel adesanya fight, sports, gq sports, gq

Id: bBq7ztQOSDk

Length: 7min 47sec (467 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019