Milwaukee Bucks, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 53% (8 players with tattoos, 7 without)
Players with tattoos:
Marquis Daniels
In 2009, Urban Ink magazine published a great interview with Daniels that includes details and explanations of many of his tattoos.
Monta Ellis
Grantland recently published an excellent profile of Ellis by Jonathan Abrams. He includes a great quote from Ellis that really explains why he’s such a treat to watch: “I always approach the game like I approached it when I was a little boy, it’s just basketball.” The set up for this quote is a description of young Monta watching weekend matinee NBA games and then going outside to mimic what he saw. As Abrams describes it: “It always seemed like the games between the Magic and Bulls, Kings and Lakers, Knicks and Heat came down to the last second. After the games ended, Monta would go outside to mimic the last-second shots on his makeshift court, a garbage can on one end and a milk crate on the other.” Ellis paid tribute to these days on his elaborate back tattoo, which includes an image of a boy beside a milkcrate basket.
Drew Gooden
A 2007 Akron Beacon-Journal article focuses on Gooden’s then-recent tattoo, his first new work since he was 15 years old. The article reports that the tattoo is Dali-like, featuring a melting clock, set to 11:11 for good luck. At opposite sides of the clock a pair of angels and a devil observe time, completing this fittingly outlandish design for Gooden.
John Henson
Henson has the words “Truly Blessed” tattooed on his chest.
Brandon Jennings
Jennings is one of the more heavily tattooed players in the league. In 2011, Jennings told the website Global Grind that he was close to finished with tattoos, as he was running out of space.
Joel Przybilla
Among his several tattoos are a basketball player on his right bicep accompanied by the text “Not in my house” and his wife’s name in a heart with roses.
J.J. Redick
Via his twitter account, Redick posted a photo of his forearm tattoo, which quotes a Kings of Leon song. At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, he explained to Brooke Thomas of Yardbarker the significance of the quote, which reads: “Single book of matches, gonna burn what’s standing in the way.” As paraphrased by Thomas, “the lyrics mean that he’s given a finite amount of time and resources to do the things he is passionate about. Whatever obstacles and challenges that arise, he has to figure out a way to burn them down.”
Larry Sanders
Sanders is one of the more heavily tattooed players in the league. When asked about his tattoos, he consistently responds that he sees tattoos as artwork, and that creative expression is the only thing a person can really own.
Players without tattoos:
Gustavo Ayon
Samuel Dalembert
Mike Dunleavy
Ersan Ilyasova
Luc Mbah a Moute
Ish Smith
Ekpe Udoh
Houston Rockets, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 40% (6 players with tattoos, 9 without)
The Rockets raised their tattoo percentage just a touch from last year.
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Courtney Fortson
Fortson has tattoos on his right arm.
Courtney Lee
Lee credits his entire professional career to the guidance and mentoring of Danny Rumph, a promising point guard who died of a heart condition at the age of 21. The two met at Western Kentucky University, where Rumph’s positive influence kept Lee in school and focused on basketball. Following Rumph’s death, Lee designed a tribute to his friend, tattooed on his right arm. As described by Fran Blinebury for NBA.com:
“The tattoo on his right biceps is a drawing of his friend wearing his Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap on his head, with wings sprouting from his shoulders and holding a basketball with the No. 11 inside. A couple of other Western Kentucky teammates, Anthony Winchester and Elgrace Wilborn, have the same tattoo that Lee had sketched out.”
Marcus Morris
Morris was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 14th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. His twin brother, Markieff Morris, was taken by Phoenix with the 13th pick. This is the first year these identical twins have played apart, after years together in youth leagues, high school, and three years with the Kansas Jayhawks. They even had the same major (American Studies) at college. The pair also share identical tattoo designs, including one that reads “FOE” which stands for Family Over Everything; one that reads “Death is a Promise”; and one that reads “Twin Towers.”
Patrick Patterson
During his years at UK, Patterson had a Martin Luther King Jr. quote tattooed on his chest: “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
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:
Earl Boykins
Chase Budinger
Samuel Dalembert
Goran Dragic
Kyle Lowry
Kevin Martin: Martin is uninterested in tattoos, for several reasons: “I’m never going to get a tattoo. I don’t like needles, so I’m not going to let a needle on me. But I also want to be a clean-cut guy. That’s just how I am.”
Chandler Parsons
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”)
Greg Smith
No longer on roster:
Jeff Adrien: no tattoos
Sacramento Kings, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 50% (7 players with tattoos, 7 without)
I like a lot of the pieces on the Kings—the young guys like Cousins and Thompson, Francisco Garcia’s gravity, Thornton’s dominance since being traded from the Hornets—and I would love it if Geoff Petrie would keep the squad together and try and pick up the momentum they had for the last month of the season. I have a feeling it’s not going to happen. I think the difference between Daniels’ “Only the strong survive” and Jackson’s “Suicide is not an option” pretty much spells out the almost-but-actually-not-at-all chemistry the team has.
—
Players with tattoos:
DeMarcus Cousins
On Cousins’ left arm is a spider sitting in a web that stretches from his shoulder to his elbow, marked with the text: “stuck in the game.” On his right arm is a basketball wearing a crown with a banner that reads “king of the game.” Game!
Marquis Daniels
Daniels is without question one of the most tattooed players in the league, and bearer of one of the most stressful tattoos in the world: beneath the text “only the strong survive,” a man commits suicide with a rifle. When asked about the tattoo, Daniels explained, ““If you’re not strong, you’re willing to do anything to find a way out.”
Donte Greene
Until the arrival of Daniels, Green was the most heavily tattooed player on the Kings. While more recent photos reveal the tattoo on his right shoulder to be a ball passing through a hoop, surrounded by flames, tell me it didn’t look like Cousin It wearing a top hat back in his rookie year.
Darnell Jackson
Jackson just got on twitter in March of 2011. Less than 60 tweets in, he posted a heartbreaker on March 25, the anniversary of his mother’s suicide. While Jackson has quite a few tattoos, including a tribute to his deceased grandmother on his left shoulder, it’s the one for his mother—the text “suicide is not an option” on his wrist—that he leans on the most: “If I’m out here working out or if I’m sitting in a room or if I’m working out in the weight room, I always just take a glance at my wrist and be like, ‘Suicide is not an option.’”
Pooh Jeter
The internet is seriously fronting on Jeter and the tattoo that occasionally peeks out of the left side of his jersey. I can’t find a photo anywhere.
Jermaine Taylor
Taylor has both arms pretty much covered.
Marcus Thornton
Among Thornton’s many tattoos is a line of text along his collar that reads: “Protected by God I fear no man.”
Players without tattoos:
Omri Casspi
Samuel Dalembert
Tyreke Evans
Francisco Garcia
Jason Thompson
Bene Udrih
Hassan Whiteside
Milwaukee Bucks, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 53% (8 players with tattoos, 7 without)
Players with tattoos:
Marquis Daniels
In 2009, Urban Ink magazine published a great interview with Daniels that includes details and explanations of many of his tattoos.
Monta Ellis
Grantland recently published an excellent profile of Ellis by Jonathan Abrams. He includes a great quote from Ellis that really explains why he’s such a treat to watch: “I always approach the game like I approached it when I was a little boy, it’s just basketball.” The set up for this quote is a description of young Monta watching weekend matinee NBA games and then going outside to mimic what he saw. As Abrams describes it: “It always seemed like the games between the Magic and Bulls, Kings and Lakers, Knicks and Heat came down to the last second. After the games ended, Monta would go outside to mimic the last-second shots on his makeshift court, a garbage can on one end and a milk crate on the other.” Ellis paid tribute to these days on his elaborate back tattoo, which includes an image of a boy beside a milkcrate basket.
Drew Gooden
A 2007 Akron Beacon-Journal article focuses on Gooden’s then-recent tattoo, his first new work since he was 15 years old. The article reports that the tattoo is Dali-like, featuring a melting clock, set to 11:11 for good luck. At opposite sides of the clock a pair of angels and a devil observe time, completing this fittingly outlandish design for Gooden.
John Henson
Henson has the words “Truly Blessed” tattooed on his chest.
Brandon Jennings
Jennings is one of the more heavily tattooed players in the league. In 2011, Jennings told the website Global Grind that he was close to finished with tattoos, as he was running out of space.
Joel Przybilla
Among his several tattoos are a basketball player on his right bicep accompanied by the text “Not in my house” and his wife’s name in a heart with roses.
J.J. Redick
Via his twitter account, Redick posted a photo of his forearm tattoo, which quotes a Kings of Leon song. At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, he explained to Brooke Thomas of Yardbarker the significance of the quote, which reads: “Single book of matches, gonna burn what’s standing in the way.” As paraphrased by Thomas, “the lyrics mean that he’s given a finite amount of time and resources to do the things he is passionate about. Whatever obstacles and challenges that arise, he has to figure out a way to burn them down.”
Larry Sanders
Sanders is one of the more heavily tattooed players in the league. When asked about his tattoos, he consistently responds that he sees tattoos as artwork, and that creative expression is the only thing a person can really own.
Players without tattoos:
Gustavo Ayon
Samuel Dalembert
Mike Dunleavy
Ersan Ilyasova
Luc Mbah a Moute
Ish Smith
Ekpe Udoh
Houston Rockets, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 40% (6 players with tattoos, 9 without)
The Rockets raised their tattoo percentage just a touch from last year.
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Courtney Fortson
Fortson has tattoos on his right arm.
Courtney Lee
Lee credits his entire professional career to the guidance and mentoring of Danny Rumph, a promising point guard who died of a heart condition at the age of 21. The two met at Western Kentucky University, where Rumph’s positive influence kept Lee in school and focused on basketball. Following Rumph’s death, Lee designed a tribute to his friend, tattooed on his right arm. As described by Fran Blinebury for NBA.com:
“The tattoo on his right biceps is a drawing of his friend wearing his Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap on his head, with wings sprouting from his shoulders and holding a basketball with the No. 11 inside. A couple of other Western Kentucky teammates, Anthony Winchester and Elgrace Wilborn, have the same tattoo that Lee had sketched out.”
Marcus Morris
Morris was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 14th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. His twin brother, Markieff Morris, was taken by Phoenix with the 13th pick. This is the first year these identical twins have played apart, after years together in youth leagues, high school, and three years with the Kansas Jayhawks. They even had the same major (American Studies) at college. The pair also share identical tattoo designs, including one that reads “FOE” which stands for Family Over Everything; one that reads “Death is a Promise”; and one that reads “Twin Towers.”
Patrick Patterson
During his years at UK, Patterson had a Martin Luther King Jr. quote tattooed on his chest: “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
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:
Earl Boykins
Chase Budinger
Samuel Dalembert
Goran Dragic
Kyle Lowry
Kevin Martin: Martin is uninterested in tattoos, for several reasons: “I’m never going to get a tattoo. I don’t like needles, so I’m not going to let a needle on me. But I also want to be a clean-cut guy. That’s just how I am.”
Chandler Parsons
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”)
Greg Smith
No longer on roster:
Jeff Adrien: no tattoos
Sacramento Kings, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 50% (7 players with tattoos, 7 without)
I like a lot of the pieces on the Kings—the young guys like Cousins and Thompson, Francisco Garcia’s gravity, Thornton’s dominance since being traded from the Hornets—and I would love it if Geoff Petrie would keep the squad together and try and pick up the momentum they had for the last month of the season. I have a feeling it’s not going to happen. I think the difference between Daniels’ “Only the strong survive” and Jackson’s “Suicide is not an option” pretty much spells out the almost-but-actually-not-at-all chemistry the team has.
—
Players with tattoos:
DeMarcus Cousins
On Cousins’ left arm is a spider sitting in a web that stretches from his shoulder to his elbow, marked with the text: “stuck in the game.” On his right arm is a basketball wearing a crown with a banner that reads “king of the game.” Game!
Marquis Daniels
Daniels is without question one of the most tattooed players in the league, and bearer of one of the most stressful tattoos in the world: beneath the text “only the strong survive,” a man commits suicide with a rifle. When asked about the tattoo, Daniels explained, ““If you’re not strong, you’re willing to do anything to find a way out.”
Donte Greene
Until the arrival of Daniels, Green was the most heavily tattooed player on the Kings. While more recent photos reveal the tattoo on his right shoulder to be a ball passing through a hoop, surrounded by flames, tell me it didn’t look like Cousin It wearing a top hat back in his rookie year.
Darnell Jackson
Jackson just got on twitter in March of 2011. Less than 60 tweets in, he posted a heartbreaker on March 25, the anniversary of his mother’s suicide. While Jackson has quite a few tattoos, including a tribute to his deceased grandmother on his left shoulder, it’s the one for his mother—the text “suicide is not an option” on his wrist—that he leans on the most: “If I’m out here working out or if I’m sitting in a room or if I’m working out in the weight room, I always just take a glance at my wrist and be like, ‘Suicide is not an option.’”
Pooh Jeter
The internet is seriously fronting on Jeter and the tattoo that occasionally peeks out of the left side of his jersey. I can’t find a photo anywhere.
Jermaine Taylor
Taylor has both arms pretty much covered.
Marcus Thornton
Among Thornton’s many tattoos is a line of text along his collar that reads: “Protected by God I fear no man.”
Players without tattoos:
Omri Casspi
Samuel Dalembert
Tyreke Evans
Francisco Garcia
Jason Thompson
Bene Udrih
Hassan Whiteside
