Atlanta Hawks, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 80% (12 players with tattoos, 3 without)
With the additions of Anthony Morrow, DeShawn Stevenson, and Lou Williams, the Hawks tattoo percentage jumped far ahead of last year.
Players with tattoos:
Devin Harris
Harris has an elaborate design tattooed on his left arm. In an interview with The Guardian, Harris explained a bit about the tattoo: “That’s kind of my conscience. It’s just there with me, all the time. I wouldn’t say I designed it but I had a hand in it, me and the tattoo artist himself.”
John Jenkins
Jenkins has a tattoo on his chest, although the design is unknown.
Ivan Johnson
Rembert Browne of Grantland did a great service by transcribing large portions of a 2008 public radio interview with fan favorite Ivan Johnson. In a particularly emotional segment, Johnson describes his mother’s death and his ongoing connection to her:
I talk to her every day. Little stupid stuff I see in the streets. I laugh with her, talk with her, a pillow that she had in the house that she used to sleep on, I keep that with me all the time. Wherever I go, I keep her obituary with me, just so I can see her face, so I won’t forget how she looked. Before she passed, I got her face tattooed on me, so I’ll never forget how she looked. And that means so much to me.
Dahntay Jones
Jones has a number of tattoos across his arms and chest.
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.
Shelvin Mack
It’s difficult to make out the design (I think it’s a “laugh now/cry later”), but Mack has a tattoo on his left arm.
Johan Petro
Petro has tattoos on both arms.
Mike Scott
Rookie Scott came into the league with 13 tattoos, as described in a ESPN profile:
Scott has 13 tattoos (and counting), including the initials of his two little brothers, Antonn and Derrick, tattooed onto his wrists; his mother’s initials are tattooed on one side of his neck and his father’s tattooed onto the other side.
Josh Smith
Among Smith’s many tattoos is a throwback Hawks logo (circa 1972-1995) on his left arm.
DeShawn Stevenson
In a 2010 video interview, after pointing out his most recent tattoos—his wife’s name above his eyebrow, her initials behind his left ear, and his jersey number on his neck—Stevenson states, “my mom, she said no more tattoos on my face, so I got to listen to her.”
Jeff Teague
As soon as the 2011-12 season ended, Teague added a full sleeve to his left arm.
Lou Williams
Williams has the word “MOTIVATION” tattooed across his back. He explained the design of the tattoo for Urban Ink Magazine:
I designed the tattoo myself when I was 17. The idea came to me to get motivation across my back, and I wanted to spell it out for all the people that motivated me. So, what I did was, I wrote down all the names of family members and friends and all of the people that helped me along the way, and I just made it all intertwine, and it came out perfect. It was incredible how the words went together and everything. I was really motivated by my family and my friends, and the people that supported me from day one.
Players without tattoos:
Al Horford
Zaza Pachulia
Anthony Tolliver
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
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
Atlanta Hawks, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 80% (12 players with tattoos, 3 without)
With the additions of Anthony Morrow, DeShawn Stevenson, and Lou Williams, the Hawks tattoo percentage jumped far ahead of last year.
Players with tattoos:
Devin Harris
Harris has an elaborate design tattooed on his left arm. In an interview with The Guardian, Harris explained a bit about the tattoo: “That’s kind of my conscience. It’s just there with me, all the time. I wouldn’t say I designed it but I had a hand in it, me and the tattoo artist himself.”
John Jenkins
Jenkins has a tattoo on his chest, although the design is unknown.
Ivan Johnson
Rembert Browne of Grantland did a great service by transcribing large portions of a 2008 public radio interview with fan favorite Ivan Johnson. In a particularly emotional segment, Johnson describes his mother’s death and his ongoing connection to her:
I talk to her every day. Little stupid stuff I see in the streets. I laugh with her, talk with her, a pillow that she had in the house that she used to sleep on, I keep that with me all the time. Wherever I go, I keep her obituary with me, just so I can see her face, so I won’t forget how she looked. Before she passed, I got her face tattooed on me, so I’ll never forget how she looked. And that means so much to me.
Dahntay Jones
Jones has a number of tattoos across his arms and chest.
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.
Shelvin Mack
It’s difficult to make out the design (I think it’s a “laugh now/cry later”), but Mack has a tattoo on his left arm.
Johan Petro
Petro has tattoos on both arms.
Mike Scott
Rookie Scott came into the league with 13 tattoos, as described in a ESPN profile:
Scott has 13 tattoos (and counting), including the initials of his two little brothers, Antonn and Derrick, tattooed onto his wrists; his mother’s initials are tattooed on one side of his neck and his father’s tattooed onto the other side.
Josh Smith
Among Smith’s many tattoos is a throwback Hawks logo (circa 1972-1995) on his left arm.
DeShawn Stevenson
In a 2010 video interview, after pointing out his most recent tattoos—his wife’s name above his eyebrow, her initials behind his left ear, and his jersey number on his neck—Stevenson states, “my mom, she said no more tattoos on my face, so I got to listen to her.”
Jeff Teague
As soon as the 2011-12 season ended, Teague added a full sleeve to his left arm.
Lou Williams
Williams has the word “MOTIVATION” tattooed across his back. He explained the design of the tattoo for Urban Ink Magazine:
I designed the tattoo myself when I was 17. The idea came to me to get motivation across my back, and I wanted to spell it out for all the people that motivated me. So, what I did was, I wrote down all the names of family members and friends and all of the people that helped me along the way, and I just made it all intertwine, and it came out perfect. It was incredible how the words went together and everything. I was really motivated by my family and my friends, and the people that supported me from day one.
Players without tattoos:
Al Horford
Zaza Pachulia
Anthony Tolliver
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
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
