Chicago Bulls, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage:60% (9 players with tattoos, 6 without)
The Bulls increased their tattoo percentage from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Carlos Boozer
Boozer is one of the most heavily tattooed players on the Bulls. In September of this year, he added portraits of his three sons to his legs.
Daequan Cook
Among Cook’s many (10+) tattoos are his daughter’s name and the words “Daddy’s Angel.”
Richard Hamilton
A recent video uploaded by UnFamous Tattoo Culture in Miami shows Hamilton getting a portrait tattooed on his chest. The video also offers glimpses of the other tattoos hidden by his jersey, including the great “Love For the Game” tattoo which features a hybrid basketball/heart (photo above).
Kirk Hinrich
Hinrich has a chain tattooed on his left wrist in honor of his late grandfather.
Nazr Mohammed
Mohammed has his name tattooed on his left shoulder above a basketball passing through a hoop.
Nate Robinson
At the beginning of the year, a USA Today interview included a ton of information about Robinson’s acronym tattoos, including FROG (Fully Rely On God); PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens); JUMP (Jesus Understands My Pain); and GAME TIME (God Answers Me Every TIME).
Derrick Rose
The Windy Apple has a great rundown of all of Rose’s tattoos.
Marquis Teague
Teague has a tattoo on his left shoulder with a basketball and the text “God Judge Me.”
Malcolm Thomas
A U-T San Diego article written during Thomas’s years at San Diego State University discusses the player’s relationship with his daughter. One paragraph describes the tattoo he received several days before her birth: “Thomas had a tattoo added to his right arm, next to the one for his mother. It is a rose with “Mikeala” written beneath it.”
Players without tattoos:
Marco Belinelli
Jimmy Butler
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
Joakim Noah
Vladimir Radmanovic
Anonymous asked: Hello! Any insight into who the artists are who've tattooed many of the NBA players? (Or a list of some of the most famous?) Thanks!
Sure! There are a couple artists who can claim to have tattooed the most NBA players.
The first is Mr. Cartoon, based in Los Angeles. Cartoon is best known for his work with rappers and other musicians—his wikipedia page lists Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Prodigy, Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé. He’s done tattoos for many of the most notoriously tattooed NBA players, including Amar’e Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer. He’s also done some charity work with LeBron James, but I’m not sure he he’s done any LBJ’s tattoos.
I think the dude that’s responsible for tattooing the most NBA players has to be Randy Harris from Tattoos by Randy, based in Atlanta. His myspace page is an incredible source of photos of NBA players—Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Richardson, Quentin Richardson, Shelden Williams. The list is long, I mean, Stephen Jackson actually has his own portfolio. If you check his twitter page, you’ll see a lot of dialogue with NBA players. He and Kevin Durant exchanged a lot of discussion about new designs via twitter last summer, culminating in a photo of Randy and Durant’s massive backpiece. The OKC connection doesn’t stop there, as Randy has also done work for Royal Ivey and Eric Maynor. Randy has also done a lot of work for Monta Ellis, and apparently the two go fishing together as well.
I keep meaning to do a rundown of all of the players Randy has tattooed, but in the meantime I saw today on twitter that iHoopAround will premiere a piece about Tattoos by Randy with input from Durant, Maynor, and Daequan Cook. I’ll post a link when that happens….
Chicago Bulls 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 54% (7 players with tattoos, 6 without)
Even with the loss of Rasual Butler and Keith Bogans, the tattoo percentage for the Bulls stayed about the same as last year’s squad. A lot of variation here—there’s definitely some extrapolation to be had between Boozer’s self-obsessed tattoos, Rose’s declarations of love and inspiration, and Noah’s assertion that it’s more original to not have tattoos at this point. But not by me.
Players with tattoos:
Carlos Boozer
Boozer recently launched a website which includes a photo gallery of his tattoos. It’s not exhaustive, but does include a nice photo of his “look back and thank god, look forward and trust god” chest tattoo. But the “C BOOZ UNLEASH THE BEAST” tattoo is disappointingly absent.
Ronnie Brewer
Brewer may lead the league in basketball tattoos, with a ball tattooed on each shoulder and a hoop tattooed on his forearm.
Richard Hamilton
The tattoo of a skeleton hand emerging from the grave spinning a basketball is an all-time favorite. For the NBA Mailbag, he described the tattoo: “I have R.I.P. coming out the ground on a tombstone that means basketball for life, basketball till I die. Yeah.”
Kyle Korver
In 2006, Korver told Sports Illustrated that he promised his mother he’s wait until her death before getting a tattoo. In 2009, as reported by Omaha.com, he and his brother Kaleb got tattoos of their favorite bible verses. Kaleb remarked that their mother was “good with it” and that they’re trying to convince their other two brothers to join in.
John Lucas III
The Windy Apple’s March 2012 feature “15 Things You Didn’t Know About John Lucas III” includes a photo of the text tattooed on Lucas’s back.
Derrick Rose
A 2011 video interview shows Rose’s new tattoo, the word “HOPE” across his left wrist. For the interview, the 2011 MVP described the emotional impetus for the design: “when things seem like it’s hard, and you think you don’t got no one else on your side, and you feel alone and all that, there’s always a chance and you’ve always got to keep hope alive. And I want to be that hope for kids, for adults or whoever. When they see me, they just want to go hard at whatever they’re doing. Just because they see the way that I am and they see the way that I play.” Also worth noting is this 27 second video of Rose’s car pulling up to a tattoo shop in Chicago and people going ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.
C.J. Watson
According to an interview for Black Sports Online, Watson got his first tattoo at the age of 16. The design includes his nickname—Quiet Storm—which also doubles as the name for his foundation. Watson reveals in the interview that the nickname was suggested by his sister while they were at the tattoo shop.
Players without tattoos:
Omer Asik
Jimmy Butler
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
Joakim Noah
Brian Scalabrine
Every Team’s Got One: Central Division
About one-sixth of NBA players have a tattoo of a basketball. It makes sense, lots of people commemorate their passions via tattoos: cyclists, chefs, shredders, LL Cool J. Still, what’s amazing is that every team has at least one player with a basketball tattoo, even the Hornets, who only have two tattooed players. Basketball tattoos range from iconic (Jordan jumpman; NBA logo), to narcissistic (Carlos Boozer’s self portrait), to symbolic (basketball wearing a crown, basketball meshed with a cross), to weird (Rip Hamilton’s gravestone). Going division by division, Every Team’s Got One will sort out the the highlights across the league, continuing here with the Central division. Click HERE to view other divisions.
Chicago Bulls
Carlos Boozer:
Ronnie Brewer:
Derrick Rose:
Cleveland Cavaliers
Alonzo Gee:
Detroit Pistons
Ben Gordon:
Rip Hamilton:
Tracy McGrady:
Rodney Stuckey:
Ben Wallace:
Indiana Pacers
Solomon Jones:
James Posey:
Brandon Rush:
Milwaukee Bucks
Brandon Jennings:
Chicago Bulls, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bulls have one of the lower tattoo percentages in the league, however the surprise that clean cut Kyle Korver has one somehow counts extra.
—
Players with tattoos:
Keith Bogans
Bogans has a tattoo of a bull, but not for his team: “I have one tattoo of a taurus on my arm. It’s a bull, it fits my personality. The other one is a panther with a basketball … I got that when I was a little bit younger.”
Carlos Boozer
Raised in Alaska, Boozer represents his home state with a tattoo of a grizzly bear. He didn’t leave himself out though, as the bear is surrounded by the text “C BOOZ UNLEASH THE BEAST.”
Ronnie Brewer
Brewer may lead the league in basketball tattoos, with one on each shoulder and a hoop on his forearm.
Rasual Butler
Early in Butler’s career, he got a tattoo reading “Against All Odds” on his left shoulder, circling the letters “SP” for his hometown of South Philadephia. During the subsequent ten years, he got the rest of his arm filled in with textures and a harp (?) but it’s nice to see the original design intact.
Kyle Korver
“We all have our favorite bible verse in my family,” explained Korver’s younger brother Kaleb in a 2009 profile, and the brothers both had their favorites tattooed on their ribs.
Derrick Rose
Not surprisingly, the sweetest dude in the NBA can made a story about getting his hand tattooed into a heart-lifting tear jerker: “I got my mom’s name with a rose behind it. Because her last name’s Rose—Brenda Rose—it’s not an ex-girlfriend or anything like that. She told me ‘don’t get it.’ Actually when I showed it to her, it was her and her friend downstairs at her house, I went out there. She said, ‘let me look at your hand.’ She looked at my hand and started crying, showing her friend, like ‘look at his tattoo’ calling me her little baby.”
C.J. Watson
Has tattoos of his family’s names on his right arm.
Players without tattoos:
Omer Asik
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
John Lucas III
Joakim Noah: Noah is decidedly anti-tattoo: “I think that this is just a trend that Allen Iverson started. But I think that it’s almost like more unique now not to have them than to have them. I think that a lot of them are corny, to be honest with you.”
Jannero Pargo
Brian Scalabrine
Kurt Thomas
Chicago Bulls, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage:60% (9 players with tattoos, 6 without)
The Bulls increased their tattoo percentage from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Carlos Boozer
Boozer is one of the most heavily tattooed players on the Bulls. In September of this year, he added portraits of his three sons to his legs.
Daequan Cook
Among Cook’s many (10+) tattoos are his daughter’s name and the words “Daddy’s Angel.”
Richard Hamilton
A recent video uploaded by UnFamous Tattoo Culture in Miami shows Hamilton getting a portrait tattooed on his chest. The video also offers glimpses of the other tattoos hidden by his jersey, including the great “Love For the Game” tattoo which features a hybrid basketball/heart (photo above).
Kirk Hinrich
Hinrich has a chain tattooed on his left wrist in honor of his late grandfather.
Nazr Mohammed
Mohammed has his name tattooed on his left shoulder above a basketball passing through a hoop.
Nate Robinson
At the beginning of the year, a USA Today interview included a ton of information about Robinson’s acronym tattoos, including FROG (Fully Rely On God); PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens); JUMP (Jesus Understands My Pain); and GAME TIME (God Answers Me Every TIME).
Derrick Rose
The Windy Apple has a great rundown of all of Rose’s tattoos.
Marquis Teague
Teague has a tattoo on his left shoulder with a basketball and the text “God Judge Me.”
Malcolm Thomas
A U-T San Diego article written during Thomas’s years at San Diego State University discusses the player’s relationship with his daughter. One paragraph describes the tattoo he received several days before her birth: “Thomas had a tattoo added to his right arm, next to the one for his mother. It is a rose with “Mikeala” written beneath it.”
Players without tattoos:
Marco Belinelli
Jimmy Butler
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
Joakim Noah
Vladimir Radmanovic
Anonymous asked: Hello! Any insight into who the artists are who've tattooed many of the NBA players? (Or a list of some of the most famous?) Thanks!
Sure! There are a couple artists who can claim to have tattooed the most NBA players.
The first is Mr. Cartoon, based in Los Angeles. Cartoon is best known for his work with rappers and other musicians—his wikipedia page lists Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Prodigy, Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé. He’s done tattoos for many of the most notoriously tattooed NBA players, including Amar’e Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer. He’s also done some charity work with LeBron James, but I’m not sure he he’s done any LBJ’s tattoos.
I think the dude that’s responsible for tattooing the most NBA players has to be Randy Harris from Tattoos by Randy, based in Atlanta. His myspace page is an incredible source of photos of NBA players—Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Carmelo Anthony, Jason Richardson, Quentin Richardson, Shelden Williams. The list is long, I mean, Stephen Jackson actually has his own portfolio. If you check his twitter page, you’ll see a lot of dialogue with NBA players. He and Kevin Durant exchanged a lot of discussion about new designs via twitter last summer, culminating in a photo of Randy and Durant’s massive backpiece. The OKC connection doesn’t stop there, as Randy has also done work for Royal Ivey and Eric Maynor. Randy has also done a lot of work for Monta Ellis, and apparently the two go fishing together as well.
I keep meaning to do a rundown of all of the players Randy has tattooed, but in the meantime I saw today on twitter that iHoopAround will premiere a piece about Tattoos by Randy with input from Durant, Maynor, and Daequan Cook. I’ll post a link when that happens….
Chicago Bulls 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 54% (7 players with tattoos, 6 without)
Even with the loss of Rasual Butler and Keith Bogans, the tattoo percentage for the Bulls stayed about the same as last year’s squad. A lot of variation here—there’s definitely some extrapolation to be had between Boozer’s self-obsessed tattoos, Rose’s declarations of love and inspiration, and Noah’s assertion that it’s more original to not have tattoos at this point. But not by me.
Players with tattoos:
Carlos Boozer
Boozer recently launched a website which includes a photo gallery of his tattoos. It’s not exhaustive, but does include a nice photo of his “look back and thank god, look forward and trust god” chest tattoo. But the “C BOOZ UNLEASH THE BEAST” tattoo is disappointingly absent.
Ronnie Brewer
Brewer may lead the league in basketball tattoos, with a ball tattooed on each shoulder and a hoop tattooed on his forearm.
Richard Hamilton
The tattoo of a skeleton hand emerging from the grave spinning a basketball is an all-time favorite. For the NBA Mailbag, he described the tattoo: “I have R.I.P. coming out the ground on a tombstone that means basketball for life, basketball till I die. Yeah.”
Kyle Korver
In 2006, Korver told Sports Illustrated that he promised his mother he’s wait until her death before getting a tattoo. In 2009, as reported by Omaha.com, he and his brother Kaleb got tattoos of their favorite bible verses. Kaleb remarked that their mother was “good with it” and that they’re trying to convince their other two brothers to join in.
John Lucas III
The Windy Apple’s March 2012 feature “15 Things You Didn’t Know About John Lucas III” includes a photo of the text tattooed on Lucas’s back.
Derrick Rose
A 2011 video interview shows Rose’s new tattoo, the word “HOPE” across his left wrist. For the interview, the 2011 MVP described the emotional impetus for the design: “when things seem like it’s hard, and you think you don’t got no one else on your side, and you feel alone and all that, there’s always a chance and you’ve always got to keep hope alive. And I want to be that hope for kids, for adults or whoever. When they see me, they just want to go hard at whatever they’re doing. Just because they see the way that I am and they see the way that I play.” Also worth noting is this 27 second video of Rose’s car pulling up to a tattoo shop in Chicago and people going ABSOLUTELY BONKERS.
C.J. Watson
According to an interview for Black Sports Online, Watson got his first tattoo at the age of 16. The design includes his nickname—Quiet Storm—which also doubles as the name for his foundation. Watson reveals in the interview that the nickname was suggested by his sister while they were at the tattoo shop.
Players without tattoos:
Omer Asik
Jimmy Butler
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
Joakim Noah
Brian Scalabrine
Every Team’s Got One: Central Division
About one-sixth of NBA players have a tattoo of a basketball. It makes sense, lots of people commemorate their passions via tattoos: cyclists, chefs, shredders, LL Cool J. Still, what’s amazing is that every team has at least one player with a basketball tattoo, even the Hornets, who only have two tattooed players. Basketball tattoos range from iconic (Jordan jumpman; NBA logo), to narcissistic (Carlos Boozer’s self portrait), to symbolic (basketball wearing a crown, basketball meshed with a cross), to weird (Rip Hamilton’s gravestone). Going division by division, Every Team’s Got One will sort out the the highlights across the league, continuing here with the Central division. Click HERE to view other divisions.
Chicago Bulls
Carlos Boozer:
Ronnie Brewer:
Derrick Rose:
Cleveland Cavaliers
Alonzo Gee:
Detroit Pistons
Ben Gordon:
Rip Hamilton:
Tracy McGrady:
Rodney Stuckey:
Ben Wallace:
Indiana Pacers
Solomon Jones:
James Posey:
Brandon Rush:
Milwaukee Bucks
Brandon Jennings:
Chicago Bulls, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Bulls have one of the lower tattoo percentages in the league, however the surprise that clean cut Kyle Korver has one somehow counts extra.
—
Players with tattoos:
Keith Bogans
Bogans has a tattoo of a bull, but not for his team: “I have one tattoo of a taurus on my arm. It’s a bull, it fits my personality. The other one is a panther with a basketball … I got that when I was a little bit younger.”
Carlos Boozer
Raised in Alaska, Boozer represents his home state with a tattoo of a grizzly bear. He didn’t leave himself out though, as the bear is surrounded by the text “C BOOZ UNLEASH THE BEAST.”
Ronnie Brewer
Brewer may lead the league in basketball tattoos, with one on each shoulder and a hoop on his forearm.
Rasual Butler
Early in Butler’s career, he got a tattoo reading “Against All Odds” on his left shoulder, circling the letters “SP” for his hometown of South Philadephia. During the subsequent ten years, he got the rest of his arm filled in with textures and a harp (?) but it’s nice to see the original design intact.
Kyle Korver
“We all have our favorite bible verse in my family,” explained Korver’s younger brother Kaleb in a 2009 profile, and the brothers both had their favorites tattooed on their ribs.
Derrick Rose
Not surprisingly, the sweetest dude in the NBA can made a story about getting his hand tattooed into a heart-lifting tear jerker: “I got my mom’s name with a rose behind it. Because her last name’s Rose—Brenda Rose—it’s not an ex-girlfriend or anything like that. She told me ‘don’t get it.’ Actually when I showed it to her, it was her and her friend downstairs at her house, I went out there. She said, ‘let me look at your hand.’ She looked at my hand and started crying, showing her friend, like ‘look at his tattoo’ calling me her little baby.”
C.J. Watson
Has tattoos of his family’s names on his right arm.
Players without tattoos:
Omer Asik
Luol Deng
Taj Gibson
John Lucas III
Joakim Noah: Noah is decidedly anti-tattoo: “I think that this is just a trend that Allen Iverson started. But I think that it’s almost like more unique now not to have them than to have them. I think that a lot of them are corny, to be honest with you.”
Jannero Pargo
Brian Scalabrine
Kurt Thomas
