In late August, it was revealed that Sylvester Stallone’s wife of 25 years, Jennifer Flavin, had filed for divorce, and one of the big indicators that there was trouble brewing between the couple was Stallone having covered up a tattoo of Flavin’s face on his shoulder. In that spot, Stallone now has the face of Butkus, his late dog who appeared in the first two Rocky movies. In the midst of this split though, it’s been revealed that Stallone almost replaced the tattoo of Flavin’s face with a DC Comics superhero instead.
Mike DeVries, the man who gave Sylvester Stallone the tattoo of Jennifer Flavin’s face years ago and a number of other tattoos, informed People that the Rambo actor got in touch with him last year to see about changing the Flavin tattoo into a certain Themysciran princess. In DeVries’ words:
I already knew that he wanted to do something, because last year he emailed me, called me, and we discussed talking about making Jennifer Flavin into [Wonder Woman].
So Sylvester Stallone has been wanting to alter his Jennifer Flavin tattoo for a while now rather than having done so on a whim, but ultimately it was decided that Wonder Woman wouldn’t be a suitable replacement. Mike DeVries said Wonder Woman’s gold tiara wouldn’t “work” with the darker portion of Flavin’s hair, as “all of her hair would just shine through.” DeVries ultimately wasn’t the tattoo artist who handled replacing Flavin with Butkus, but he described the artwork of the dog as looking “good.” Between the complications of morphing Flavin into Wonder Woman and Butkus’ importance in Stallone’s life way back when, it’s safe to say the actor made the right call with the tattoo change.
As for why Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin are divorcing, Stallone denied it had anything to do with an argument he had with her over purchasing a Rottweiler named Dwight. Instead, it’s been reported that these two are separating because Flavin has accused Stallone of covering up certain financial assets, which led to an “unequal distribution” of funds between the two spouses. Flavin’s legal team has also said that Stallone should be “enjoined from, selling, transferring, assigning, encumbering, or dissipating any assets during the pendency of proceedings.” Stallone has since responded that these accusations of him excessively spending money are untrue.
Even before Sylvester Stallone’s tattoo cover-up was noticed, there was an indicator that things were not well between him and Jennifer Flavin back in early August. The latter was photographed in Beverly Hills, and upon looking closely at the photos, fans noticed Flavin wasn’t wearing her wedding ring. While Flavin was seen wearing the ring in June, at this point she and Stallone have decided that their marriage isn’t working anymore and are going their separate ways.
While we wait for more news about the divorce proceedings between Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin, the former can currently be seen leading the superhero movie Samaritan, which can be viewed with an Amazon Prime subscription. Stallone will next be seen leading Tulsa King, the crime drama series premiering to Paramount+ subscribers on November 13, and in 2023, he'll reprise Barney Ross in The Expendables 4 and Stakar Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
