Andre Lima on Saturday became about the billionth person to make a knee-jerk decision to get a tattoo on a trip to Las Vegas.
But it’s likely to be a move he won’t regret – and it’s one that wound up making him a whole lot more money than he had when he walked into the tattoo studio.
In an absolute rarity, Lima (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) stayed unbeaten against fellow Brazilian Igor Severino (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on the UFC on ESPN 53 prelims when Severino was disqualified … for biting his arm.
And lest you think it was just some kind of misunderstanding, after Severino was disqualified, Lima showed the inside of his bicep – which had teeth marks from Severino, despite his mouthpiece.
After the fight, UFC CEO Dana White told Lima he was going to get the promotion’s first “I Got Bit” bonus. So Lima decided to strike while the iron was hot – and while the bite marks still may have been hot, too. After he left the UFC Apex, he high-tailed it to a tattoo parlor, where he promptly got fresh ink with White’s quote – right around the bite marks.
Once he posted about it on social media and White saw it, he said he originally was going to give Lima $25,000 as an off-the-books bonus, but the tattoo made him up the ante to $50,000.
It’s hard to say what Lima’s new tattoo cost, but we can be reasonably sure it wasn’t $25,000. Some pretty simple math says that tattoo idea, despite being soooooooo Vegas, was a great move not just for the uniqueness of his fight, but because it led to another $25K.
Check out exclusive video below of Lima’s tattoo trip, as well as photos from the inking.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 53.
