A wooden heart with Mike Tyson‘s famous face tattoo sits in the background of his podcast set. The piece did not come from a factory. It came from a Wisconsin artist who picks up discarded furniture from the side of the road and turns it into detailed artwork.
Ike Wynter, a Milwaukee-based wood artist, designed the logo for Tyson’s podcast. He also built wooden versions of all 32 NFL team logos from scrap for the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay, a project he says took 700 hours. His story gained fresh attention in early November 2026 through an exclusive interview with People.
The artist does not use paint, stain, or dye. Every color in his work comes from the natural tones of old wood he finds in dumpsters, on curbs, and in donated furniture.
The Mike Tyson Podcast Logo Has a Wooden Heart and a Tattoo
Wynter designed a custom wooden logo for the background of Mike Tyson’s podcast, “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson.” The piece is shaped like a heart and includes Tyson’s well-known face tattoo inside it.
“We actually designed a logo for the background of his podcast. Every clip that you see of him, it’s like a heart with his tattoo built into the heart made out of wood.”
The opportunity came while Wynter was working at a nonprofit that did projects with celebrities. He was on the set of Tyson’s podcast when the boxer’s team learned about his woodworking skill. The team asked him to create something for the show.
The wooden heart has become a regular part of the podcast’s visual background in many video clips. Wynter shared the piece on his Instagram with a caption saying he had the “privilege to create a custom piece for the one & only @miketyson”.
The Tyson piece was also the first artwork that helped Wynter go viral online. He teased that he was building something for a celebrity everyone would recognize, and viewers flooded the comments trying to guess who it was.
From Roadside Wood to a Full-Time Art Career
Wynter did not grow up as an “art kid.” Drawing and painting did not interest him. He grew up cutting wood and framing houses with his father, so saws and lumber felt normal to him.
His art career started with a simple thought in 2016.
“Literally one day in 2016, I was just like, wait, why can’t I just pick up wood from the side of the road and have fun with it?” he told People. “That was the whole premise of it, literally just curiosity and picking up wood from the side of the road, and seeing if I can repurpose it before it goes to a landfill.”
He began posting his creations on Facebook for friends and family. When TikTok grew and the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, he started sharing videos more seriously. One of his first videos to get attention showed him making a piece for a customer and received around 73,000 views. He told People he “thought I won the fricking lottery.” Some of his videos now have more than 50 million views.
The viral moment with Tyson’s piece opened the door to more celebrity and brand work. Within a year, Wynter was building art for a range of clients.
The 700-Hour NFL Project: 32 Logos, No Paint, 60 Days
The NFL found Wynter through social media while preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The league wanted local artists for the player walkway, the path each new player takes before hearing his name called on stage.
The NFL announced the collaboration on April 2, 2025. The plan was for Wynter to create 32 handcrafted wooden pieces, one for each team, made entirely from reclaimed wood sourced from discarded furniture across Wisconsin.
“To have this work be part of such a major moment for these players, and for it to represent the heart of Wisconsin, is an incredible honor,” Wynter said in the NFL release. “Each piece of wood is from this community and has its own story, and I wanted to honor that by creating something meaningful without altering its natural beauty.”
The project came with a tight timeline. Wynter finished the collection in just 60 days. He worked overnight, sending progress photos to the NFL office at 6 a.m. so the team in New York could review them when they arrived at 7 a.m..
“When I would wake up at noon every day, I would read the feedback, we’d get on a quick FaceTime, and then I would have my plan for the entire night to build,” he told People. “I’d be like, oh, I’ll go and try to find a new color for this team, so let’s set that one aside, but tonight I’m going to work on these two teams.”
The NFL’s initial announcement said Wynter spent over 500 hours on the installation. In his November 2026 interview with People, Wynter put the total at 700 hours. The final pieces were 3-foot by 3-foot wooden mosaics, and the only colors came from the wood itself.
Matching team colors without paint was the hardest part. The Chicago Bears logo required him to work through different shades of red, orange, and brown. He had to sort through dressers and drawers to find the right tones and then work with the NFL office to pick the closest match.
The finished logos lined the player walkway at the draft. Videos of newly drafted players slapping their new team logos on the way to the stage spread widely online.
Other Brands and Teams That Hired Ike Wynter
The Tyson podcast piece and the NFL draft project are part of a longer list of clients. Wynter has created wooden art for Crayola, the Milwaukee Brewers, the NHL, the NBA, Thursday Night Football, and Notre Dame athletics.
A wooden Crayola box was one of the pieces that helped his social media following grow quickly. For Notre Dame, he built a leprechaun logo for the basketball program using wood saved from the old arena floor after it was replaced.
Wynter’s work has also appeared in connection with the Stanley Cup and the New York Stock Exchange. He has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, where he shares details of his projects, and he sells artwork through his own website.
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A Wooden Heart That Keeps Showing Up on Mike Tyson’s Podcast
The heart-shaped wooden logo with Tyson’s tattoo remains part of the podcast’s set. Clips from “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson” regularly show the piece behind the host, and the design has become one of the most recognizable visuals linked to the show.
For Wynter, the piece started as a project through a nonprofit connection. It turned into a calling card that led to the NFL, Crayola, and a career built on material most people throw away.
“I never wanted to go to the store to buy materials or give into materialism or consumerism,” he told People. “We live in a society that is materialistic, and packages get delivered all day, every day, so I just wanted to take what was already existing in the world and what other people deemed as junk and turn it into art.”
The artist keeps a “moonshot list” of dream projects written in a notebook sealed in an envelope on his studio ceiling. Names on that list include Tony Hawk and Green Day. For now, the wooden heart on Tyson’s podcast set continues to appear in clip after clip, made from scrap wood that once sat on a curb in Wisconsin.
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