Most of Lyman Good’s visible tattoos sit on his left side: a framed chest skull, a dense sleeve, a broad back piece and an armored figure across his flank. His right side is less crowded. Fight photos show how the designs bend around his body, especially during UFC 244 against Chance Rencountre.

The skull tattoo on his left chest

A skull fills much of Good’s left pectoral. In the UFC 244 weigh-in photo, dark eye sockets and a pale forehead sit inside a shield-like frame. The border keeps the image distinct from the heavier work near his shoulder.

Cursive lettering sits above the skull near his collarbone. The photos aren’t clear enough to read it reliably, and Good hasn’t publicly explained the skull’s meaning.

The bird across his back

A long-feathered bird spreads across Good’s upper and middle back. Its dark outline stays visible as he leans into a clinch. The feathered edges are uneven, and darker curls break up the lower outline; the lighter skin around it makes the full shape easier to pick out.

The second view shows how the feathered design bends with his back. Some gaps open up while others disappear around the curve. The photos show a large black-and-gray birdlike figure, but don’t establish its species or meaning.

The chest skull is tightly framed; the back piece spans a much wider area. Both use dark shading, at different scales.

The black-and-gray sleeve on his left arm

Good’s left sleeve combines a winged, birdlike image around the shoulder with smaller faces, curved forms and shaded details farther down the arm. The upper section has more open space; lower down, the lines overlap and the design looks denser. A glove or opponent can hide individual images in a fight photo, but the sleeve’s dark outline remains easy to recognize.

From the side, the wing curves around his shoulder. His turned forearm hides some of the smaller images.

For another collection built around large figures, see Alessio Sakara’s tattoos. The useful comparison is how the designs occupy the body; their meanings may be entirely different.

The armored figure along his left side

A helmeted, armored figure runs along Good’s left flank beneath his raised arm. Its layered headgear looks samurai-like, with a large feathered shape and dark curls beside it. The design turns toward his back, and his arm often covers the upper section; in the exchange with Rencountre, the raised elbow leaves more of the piece visible.

In a Consequence of Habit conversation, Good connected the side inscription with wanting peace while being prepared for war. He explained the words, not the identity of the artist or the meaning of every figure around them.

At the UFC 244 weigh-in

Good stands on the left opposite the taller Rencountre at the 2019 UFC 244 faceoff. He had won a Bellator championship in 2009 and spent years competing before joining the UFC. Under the bright stage lights, the still pose makes their difference in height and stance easy to see.

Fighting in New York

UFC 244 brought Good to a hometown crowd. In a pre-fight MMAWeekly interview, he spoke about having New York behind him. A UFC profile ahead of his 2015 debut said he taught at Tiger Schulmann’s while preparing to compete; it also reported that his mother introduced him to martial arts when he was eleven.

Those details give context to the fight-week photos, but they don’t tell us what any particular tattoo means.

After the final exchange

Good beat Rencountre by knockout at UFC 244. The celebration photo shows him with a fist raised as the referee tends to his opponent. Afterward, Good said teammate Julio Arce’s earlier loss had motivated him, and that he wanted a bout against higher-ranked opposition.

The interview below was filmed during that New York fight week.