Charlotte Bobcats, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bobcats saw their tattoo percentage increase slightly from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Ben Gordon
Gordon entered the league with a tattoo of an angel giving a basketball to a kneeling figure.
Gerald Henderson
Henderson has a tattoo on his back that’s occasionally visible past the edge of his jersey. In August of 2012, he described the tattoo in response to a question posed on twitter: “grandparents in angel wings.”
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Kidd-Gilchrist, who came into the league with no visible tattoos, added a massive backpiece at the end of his rookie season.
Byron Mullins
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm.
Jeff Taylor
Taylor has tattoos that peek out of the sides of his uniform.
Tyrus Thomas
Easily the most heavily tattooed players on the Bobcats, Thomas admits to disliking his first tattoo: “The name was just like the first one. I think a lot of people usually get their name as the first one. If I could do it over I wouldn’t. You know, I know my name.”
Reggie Williams
Williams has a portrait tattooed on his left shoulder and another design on his right forearm.
Players without tattoos:
Jeff Adrien
Bismack Biyombo
DeSagana Diop
Brendan Haywood
Josh McRoberts
Jannero Pargo
Ramon Sessions
Kemba Walker
Charlotte Bobcats, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 43% (6 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bobcats are having a tough year. They have fewer tattoos then they did last year, and one of the lowest percentages of tattooed players in the league.
Players with tattoos:
D.J. Augustin
Last summer Houston-based tattoo artist Kevo posted a video of himself giving a tattoo to D.J. Augustin. The finished “Family First” design on his chest joins the others as listed by Augustin on his website: “I have a cross on my arm that says truly blessed. On the other arm I have praying hands. I have a scroll on my chest and a basketball with a crown on the other side.” On his back is a touching tribute to his deceased grandmother in which pair of hands hold a basketball beside the text “thanks for the rock” to memorialize his first ball, which was purchased by his grandmother for his fifth birthday. The design is pretty awe-inspiring.
Gerald Henderson
It’s impossible to make out the design, but Henderson has a tattoo on his back that peeks out of the left side of his jersey.
Corey Maggette
Maggette has a tattoo on his right shoulder of a wizard with a basketball and several planets.
Byron Mullens
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm.
Tyrus Thomas
Easily the most heavily tattooed players on the Bobcats, Thomas admits to disliking his first tattoo: “The name was just like the first one. I think a lot of people usually get their name as the first one. If I could do it over I wouldn’t. You know, I know my name.
Reggie Williams
Williams has a portrait tattooed on his left shoulder and another design on his right forearm.
Players without tattoos:
Bismack Biyombo
Derrick Brown
Matt Carroll
DeSagana Diop
Cory Higgins: there’s no evidence that Higgins has tattoos, however he posted this on Twitter in February of this year…
Eduardo Najera
Kemba Walker
D.J. White
Oklahoma City Thunder, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 64% (9 players with tattoos, 5 without)
It was only a couple of years ago that the Thunder had a reputation for being the least tattooed team in the league. OKC banner wavers DailyThunder.com addressed their lack of tattoos in two different 2009 columns, the first of which posited fewer tattoos=better players, at least for the Thunder. Granted, the team’s pre-trade starting five of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Nenad Krstic, Jeff Green and Thabo Sefolosha had only one visibly tattooed player, but there’s a lot of ink on that team. In fact, since the trade, only six teams have more tattooed players than the Thunder, and the affable, nice guys of Oklahoma City inexplicably have nine tattooed players, which ties them with the Denver Nuggets.
—
Daequan Cook
Among Cook’s many (10+) tattoos are his daughter’s name and the words “Daddy’s Angel.”
Kevin Durant
Durant has a tattoo of his mother’s name, Wanda, on his chest and another design on his wrist. He may not get any more, however, because of the way it feels: “It was like getting pinched for 30 minutes straight. It wasn’t that bad. I don’t think I could take sitting there for two and three hours, just sitting there with them chipping away. That’s too much.”
Royal Ivey
Born and raised in New York, Ivey has a full back piece repping the city, with the statue of liberty, the twin towers, and the Queensboro bridge among other landmarks. In a Fanhouse video interview, he explained that “every one of my tattoos means something” and went on to explain the “eye of the beholder” design on his forearm: “you know, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and that’s the man above so that’s why I put it.”
Eric Maynor
In his senior year at Virginia Commonwealth, Maynor was the topic of a bit of controversy when photos on cover of the VCU media kit showed Maynor with his tattoos airbrushed out. VCU athletic director Norwood Teague explained to the Richmond Times Dispatch that “we try to take them off to present more of an even-keel image” and went on to say that, “we remove them all the time.”
Nazr Mohammed
Mohammed has his name tattooed on his left shoulder above a basketball passing through a hoop.
Byron Mullens
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm. I actually thought this photo was a joke and so I went through and made sure he really had them.
Kendrick Perkins
Perkins has tattoos covering most of his arms, and they are just as opaque and intriguing as he is.
Nate Robinson
Another heavily tattooed Seattle native, Robinson is likely one of the most tattooed in the league, which makes sense, given how early he started: “I was thirteen when I got my first tattoo, and it was the Iverson bulldog because Iverson had it. It says Mr. Robinson at the bottom.”
Thabo Sefolosha
Sefolosha’s two tattoos read “The Game Chose Me” and “God Guides My Steps.” In an NBA.com profile, he explained the designs: “Those are two things that are very important in my life: basketball and God.”
Players without tattoos:
Cole Aldrich
Nick Collison
James Harden
Serge Ibaka
Russell Westbrook
Charlotte Bobcats, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bobcats saw their tattoo percentage increase slightly from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Ben Gordon
Gordon entered the league with a tattoo of an angel giving a basketball to a kneeling figure.
Gerald Henderson
Henderson has a tattoo on his back that’s occasionally visible past the edge of his jersey. In August of 2012, he described the tattoo in response to a question posed on twitter: “grandparents in angel wings.”
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Kidd-Gilchrist, who came into the league with no visible tattoos, added a massive backpiece at the end of his rookie season.
Byron Mullins
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm.
Jeff Taylor
Taylor has tattoos that peek out of the sides of his uniform.
Tyrus Thomas
Easily the most heavily tattooed players on the Bobcats, Thomas admits to disliking his first tattoo: “The name was just like the first one. I think a lot of people usually get their name as the first one. If I could do it over I wouldn’t. You know, I know my name.”
Reggie Williams
Williams has a portrait tattooed on his left shoulder and another design on his right forearm.
Players without tattoos:
Jeff Adrien
Bismack Biyombo
DeSagana Diop
Brendan Haywood
Josh McRoberts
Jannero Pargo
Ramon Sessions
Kemba Walker
Charlotte Bobcats, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 43% (6 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bobcats are having a tough year. They have fewer tattoos then they did last year, and one of the lowest percentages of tattooed players in the league.
Players with tattoos:
D.J. Augustin
Last summer Houston-based tattoo artist Kevo posted a video of himself giving a tattoo to D.J. Augustin. The finished “Family First” design on his chest joins the others as listed by Augustin on his website: “I have a cross on my arm that says truly blessed. On the other arm I have praying hands. I have a scroll on my chest and a basketball with a crown on the other side.” On his back is a touching tribute to his deceased grandmother in which pair of hands hold a basketball beside the text “thanks for the rock” to memorialize his first ball, which was purchased by his grandmother for his fifth birthday. The design is pretty awe-inspiring.
Gerald Henderson
It’s impossible to make out the design, but Henderson has a tattoo on his back that peeks out of the left side of his jersey.
Corey Maggette
Maggette has a tattoo on his right shoulder of a wizard with a basketball and several planets.
Byron Mullens
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm.
Tyrus Thomas
Easily the most heavily tattooed players on the Bobcats, Thomas admits to disliking his first tattoo: “The name was just like the first one. I think a lot of people usually get their name as the first one. If I could do it over I wouldn’t. You know, I know my name.
Reggie Williams
Williams has a portrait tattooed on his left shoulder and another design on his right forearm.
Players without tattoos:
Bismack Biyombo
Derrick Brown
Matt Carroll
DeSagana Diop
Cory Higgins: there’s no evidence that Higgins has tattoos, however he posted this on Twitter in February of this year…
Eduardo Najera
Kemba Walker
D.J. White
Oklahoma City Thunder, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 64% (9 players with tattoos, 5 without)
It was only a couple of years ago that the Thunder had a reputation for being the least tattooed team in the league. OKC banner wavers DailyThunder.com addressed their lack of tattoos in two different 2009 columns, the first of which posited fewer tattoos=better players, at least for the Thunder. Granted, the team’s pre-trade starting five of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Nenad Krstic, Jeff Green and Thabo Sefolosha had only one visibly tattooed player, but there’s a lot of ink on that team. In fact, since the trade, only six teams have more tattooed players than the Thunder, and the affable, nice guys of Oklahoma City inexplicably have nine tattooed players, which ties them with the Denver Nuggets.
—
Daequan Cook
Among Cook’s many (10+) tattoos are his daughter’s name and the words “Daddy’s Angel.”
Kevin Durant
Durant has a tattoo of his mother’s name, Wanda, on his chest and another design on his wrist. He may not get any more, however, because of the way it feels: “It was like getting pinched for 30 minutes straight. It wasn’t that bad. I don’t think I could take sitting there for two and three hours, just sitting there with them chipping away. That’s too much.”
Royal Ivey
Born and raised in New York, Ivey has a full back piece repping the city, with the statue of liberty, the twin towers, and the Queensboro bridge among other landmarks. In a Fanhouse video interview, he explained that “every one of my tattoos means something” and went on to explain the “eye of the beholder” design on his forearm: “you know, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and that’s the man above so that’s why I put it.”
Eric Maynor
In his senior year at Virginia Commonwealth, Maynor was the topic of a bit of controversy when photos on cover of the VCU media kit showed Maynor with his tattoos airbrushed out. VCU athletic director Norwood Teague explained to the Richmond Times Dispatch that “we try to take them off to present more of an even-keel image” and went on to say that, “we remove them all the time.”
Nazr Mohammed
Mohammed has his name tattooed on his left shoulder above a basketball passing through a hoop.
Byron Mullens
Mullens used go to by BJ Mullens, and has B tattooed on his left forearm and J tattooed on his right forearm. I actually thought this photo was a joke and so I went through and made sure he really had them.
Kendrick Perkins
Perkins has tattoos covering most of his arms, and they are just as opaque and intriguing as he is.
Nate Robinson
Another heavily tattooed Seattle native, Robinson is likely one of the most tattooed in the league, which makes sense, given how early he started: “I was thirteen when I got my first tattoo, and it was the Iverson bulldog because Iverson had it. It says Mr. Robinson at the bottom.”
Thabo Sefolosha
Sefolosha’s two tattoos read “The Game Chose Me” and “God Guides My Steps.” In an NBA.com profile, he explained the designs: “Those are two things that are very important in my life: basketball and God.”
Players without tattoos:
Cole Aldrich
Nick Collison
James Harden
Serge Ibaka
Russell Westbrook
