Shaquille Dent has emerged over the past couple of days as a social-media sensation for -- if you hadn't already guessed -- his sensational Goku-inspired, gravity-defying hair.

Now an animation student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Dent discovered while he was a junior in high school that he could sculpt his hair into enormous spikes. Although his original style was a tribute to Dragon Ball Z, he told BuzzFeed he recently bleached part of his hair as a nod to Yu-Gi-Oh!

“It’s funny — the reason this went viral was because of all of the haters," said Dent, who's been dubbed by some as "Black Goku." "They wanted to bash me for my hair but ended up promoting it instead.”