Chris Brown adds Neck Tatoo of Rihanna’s face

Chris Brown may have rekindled his romance with Rihanna, but he says a shocking new tattoo on his neck isn't an homage to his former flame despite the eerie resemblance.

The famously hot-tempered R&B star showed off some fresh ink on the red carpet earlier this month, displaying a large tattoo of a woman’s face on the side of his neck.

The black-and-white image shows a woman whose bone structure, arched eyebrows and full lips bear a striking similarity to Brown’s onetime girlfriend Rihanna, but the tattoo version bears the scars of a serious beating.

Her lips are covered in stitches while she looks like she has a black eye and bruising on the right side of her face.

"His tattoo is a sugar skull (associated with the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead) and a MAC cosmetics design he saw," the rep told ABCNews.com as controversy swirled around the photo. "It is not Rihanna or an abused woman as erroneously reported."

Also, the rep added, the tattoo is currently peeling, making it look different from how Brown had initially imagined it.