Mickey Rourke has forked out $400 on a tattoo of his dead dog's nickname.

According to TMZ, The 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For' star spent two hours getting the tribute done at a New York tattoo parlour on Sunday night and spent the time showing the artist pictures of the white Chihuahua as well as telling him stories about his canine pal.

It's not the first time Mickey has paid a public tribute to Jaws as in November last year he wore a lanyard around his neck featuring a big photo of his pet, complete with his nickname Guapo Siempre on, when he attended a press conference in Moscow for his boxing match against Elliot Seymour later that week.

Mickey previously revealed the pooch bit him so hard in the face when he was first introduced to him that had to have two stitches and felt as though he'd been hit by Mike Tyson.

He said: "He didn’t want to come near me. So I pick him up and he bites me right in the face and I get two stitches.

"I mean, it felt like Mike Tyson punched me right in the mouth; it f***ing hurt.

"My lip was out three or four inches and there’s two pints of blood going down my shirt. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, f**k’, and knew it was my fault because I put him too close to me."

Despite getting off to a bad start, Mickey decided to keep Jaws, who he initially wanted to name Little Mickey, much to the shock of the staff at the dog home and ending up basing his imposing 'Sin City' character Marv on the canine.

He said: "I brought ['Sin City' director] Robert [Rodriguez] to my house one day and said, ‘This is Marv.' He doesn’t walk around growling all the time, but when you pick him up he turns into Marv.

"So basically, it was really good for me to use the dog. And then all of a sudden he kind of snaps out of it.

"You know how Marv takes medication all the time? That’s why. It’s when he doesn’t take his medication that he gets mental. So the dog really worked for me a lot."