Chris Brown has new tattoo, and it looks like a battered Rihanna

By August Brown

Sept. 11, 2012 12 AM PT

Recent photos of Chris Brown show the singer with a new neck tattoo, and “Domestic Violence Victim Trigger Warning” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Brown’s neck is now inscribed with a drawing of a mangled female face. The portrait unmistakably resembles the police photos of a beaten Rihanna leaked after the gruesome 2009 incident, where he repeatedly punched her and smashed her face into the window of their car before the Grammys, and for which he was sentenced to five years’ probation and six months of community service, which he has since completed.

TMZ has sources “really close to Chris” saying that any resemblance is entirely coincidental, and Brown’s publicist has denied to EW.com that it was ever meant to resemble her. But even if the image is unrelated to the violent incident, the face in the tattoo does share Rihanna’s basic facial features, and the injuries are remarkably consistent with the leaked abuse photos.

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Even if the bizarre tattoo is an unintentional reminder of that night, the fact that Brown found this particular image of a beaten woman to be so profound and meaningful that he wanted to ink it into his oft-photographed neck is deeply unsettling at least.

Brown’s post-assault life has been erratic, with not only chart-topping albums and Grammy awards but also a volley of alternately repentant and villainous behavior in his personal life. This, however, suggests that one thing Brown might truly need in his life is someone to tell him that tattooing a portrait of a bloodied woman who looks like the very famous ex he savagely beat might be, well, a bad idea.