From Conor McGregor’s crowned Gorilla tattoo to Dan Hooker’s Maori tattoos, many UFC fighters have etched a part of their identity onto their bodies. With bold lines and intricate symbolism, these tattoos express stories that have a lot of depth and history. Welterweight breakout star Carlos Prates is no different as his body is adorned with a myriad of body art.

From his chest to his back and arms, ‘The Nightmare’ has a set of tattoos that send a clear message about the individual that he is. So in this article, in tandem with The Fighting Nerds member making his fifth Octagonal appearance at UFC Kansas against Ian Machado Garry, we’ll take a closer look at the various body inks of Carlos Prates.

What does Carlos Prates’ back tattoo mean?

Let’s start with ‘The Nightmare’s’ huge back tattoo that he got before his fight at UFC Vegas 100. This tattoo surely added an intimidating aura to him ahead of his fight against Neil Magny. Carlos Prates got the new inkwork done on his entire back, with his moniker ‘The Nightmare’ written on the top of the realistic portraits of four clowns—various iterations of The Joker from the DC Universe, and Sweet Tooth from the video game franchise Twisted Metal—on the rest of his back.

The UFC posted the picture of his tattoo on their official Reddit handle and it naturally caught the attention of the MMA fans. His precision striking and KO power coupled with his menacing tattoos and a smoking addiction, make him a pretty intimidating character. However, he is rather humble in real life, as was visible from his interview with UFC back in 2024.

He said, “I’m grateful that life took me to the world’s greatest organization, but if that hadn’t happened, I would still be living and I would still be a happy man. I still do the same things and go to the same places. I still walk around in shorts and flip-flops because that’s who I am. The money helps to change the lives of those around me.” Now that we know about his huge back tattoo which is a stark contrast to his humble nature, let’s check out his other inks.

What is tattooed on Carlos Prates’ head and neck?

The head and neck are pretty sensitive areas in general. Whether it’s concussion-inducing knockout punches and head kicks or getting tattoos, you will feel intense pain in these regions. Well, Prates is clearly a different breed of human and  immune to pain since he has huge tattoos in these areas on his body.

He has ‘Nothing can stop me’ tattooed on his neck. Other than that, he has ‘Predestinado’ tattooed on his head, meaning predestined. He also has what looks like a ‘Macumba’ tattoo on his epiglottis, suggesting his alignment with Afro-Brazilian religions. But those are his neck tattoos. What about the rest of his body?

The meaning behind Carlos Prates’ chest and arm tattoos

The first thing that you might notice about him is his huge chest tattoo. Prates has ‘Muay Thai’ tattooed on his chest. It’s not surprising that he wants to display his love for the art form that started it all for him.

Asked for his account to UFC, he started out in MMA through Muay Thai When he was 15 years old. He even lived in Thailand for six years, training in the art form and allegedly competing in more than 100 Muay Thai bouts while at it, according to his confession to the UFC.

His left arm is adorned with a full sleeve tattoo including a skull, a mysterious female figure, and some intricate flowers. His right arm has full sleeve inks with a baby who has angel wings and a halo, “one life no choice” tattooed, a deck of playing cards, and a Japanese Oni tattoo.

Prates also has “danger” tattooed on his left leg running down his shin on top of the shin bone, which is another extremely painful area to get a tattoo. That term perfectly describes Prates when he’s in there with his opponents. What do you think about his tattoos? Share your thoughts in the comments below.