Cleveland Cavaliers, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 60% (9 players with tattoos, 6 without)
Cleveland’s tattoo percentage went up a touch from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on the inside of his right arm.
Alonzo Gee
As a child, Gee was required by his mother to memorize bible verses. One from Isaiah 54:17 is tattooed on his right shoulder: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”
Daniel Gibson
Gibson is one of the most heavily tattooed players on the Cavs. This year, he added a tattoo to his hand in tribute to his wife, Keyshia Cole.
Kyrie Irving
Irving has several tattoos, which he’s documented via his twitter account. In the beginning of 2010 he added a photo of the tribute to his mother, and towards the end of that year shared a photo of his “hungry & humble” tattoo.
C.J. Miles
Miles recently got a tattoo of the serenity prayer on his arm. The Deseret News reports that the tattoo has become a part of Miles’ pregame ritual:
That Serenity Prayer is so important to Miles, he rubs the tattoo as part of his pregame ritual. It’s his “mental reminder.”
“I’ve got it tatted on my arm for a reason,” he said. “All I can worry about is tonight, try to help my team win a game today. … If you miss shots, so be it. All you can control is the next one.”
Marreese Speights
Speights has several tattoos on his arms, including his mother’s name on his forearm.
Tristan Thompson
Thompson has a couple of tattoos, including the initials “G2S” meaning “Grind To Shine” and the text “I Am My Brother’s Keeper” on his chest. In a 2012 article about tattoos in the league, he shared his thoughts about basketball-related tattoos:
“I wanted to get something that was going to mean something so I won’t regret it when I’m 50,” Thompson said. “A lot of guys get tattoos because maybe they’re drunk one night or they think something is cool at the time. I’d never get a basketball tattoo because basketball only lasts so long. When you stop playing the game, it’s going to look (dumb).”
Dion Waiters
Waiters kept a rookie year diary for Dime Magazine this year. His March entry talks through all of his tattoos to date, and discusses his plans for future designs.
Luke Walton
Better just to leave it in Walton’s own words: “The first one I got here, I got in college, and I got the Grateful Dead skeletons but with basketballs instead of canes and hats.”
Players without tattoos:
Omri Cassia
Kevin Jones
Shaun Livingston
Chris Quinn
Anderson Varejao
Tyler Zeller
Wayne Ellington’s tattoo
Just noticed that Wayne Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep. This is a pretty good place to hide a tattoo I guess. Team and overall stats have been adjusted.
Minnesota Timberwolves, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below average number of tattooed players, but their percentage went up a bit from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic’s tattoo of a knight standing atop a heap of skulls is one of the best-loved tattoos in the league, inspiring a t-shirt, impassioned blog posts, and countless remarks that the design fits his game perfectly. Timberwolves blog A Wolf Among Wolves got some great quotes from Pek about the tattoo (“It’s just me and my progress this year,” says Pek, “the drawing is something like me.”) and Sports by Brooks offers an interesting historic review of the tattoo’s potential relationship with the history of Pekovic’s homeland, Montenegro.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Ricky Rubio
Much like fellow Spaniard Rudy Fernandez, Rubio’s only tattoo is a Chinese character on his wrist.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both arms.
Players without tattoos:
J.J. Barea
Wes Johnson
Malcolm Lee
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
Derrick Williams
Minnesota Timberwolves, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 38% (5 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below-average percentage of tattooed players but it’s higher then their win percentage for the last three seasons. Yikes!
—
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic has a classic looking tattoo of an armored warrior calmly lording over his kills, the kind of thing you’d see in 70s biker culture. A pile of skulls is not an unusual feature for a tattoo, but considering Pekovic’s childhood in Montenegro coincided with the Bosnian War and Croation War, it feels heavy.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Sebastian Telfair
On Telfair’s back is tattooed the words “LUCKY ME,” a reference to the Jay Z song of the same name.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both shoulders.
Players without tattoos:
Wayne Ellington
Jonny Flynn
Lazar Hayward
Wesley Johnson
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
Cleveland Cavaliers, 2012-13
Tattoo percentage: 60% (9 players with tattoos, 6 without)
Cleveland’s tattoo percentage went up a touch from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on the inside of his right arm.
Alonzo Gee
As a child, Gee was required by his mother to memorize bible verses. One from Isaiah 54:17 is tattooed on his right shoulder: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”
Daniel Gibson
Gibson is one of the most heavily tattooed players on the Cavs. This year, he added a tattoo to his hand in tribute to his wife, Keyshia Cole.
Kyrie Irving
Irving has several tattoos, which he’s documented via his twitter account. In the beginning of 2010 he added a photo of the tribute to his mother, and towards the end of that year shared a photo of his “hungry & humble” tattoo.
C.J. Miles
Miles recently got a tattoo of the serenity prayer on his arm. The Deseret News reports that the tattoo has become a part of Miles’ pregame ritual:
That Serenity Prayer is so important to Miles, he rubs the tattoo as part of his pregame ritual. It’s his “mental reminder.”
“I’ve got it tatted on my arm for a reason,” he said. “All I can worry about is tonight, try to help my team win a game today. … If you miss shots, so be it. All you can control is the next one.”
Marreese Speights
Speights has several tattoos on his arms, including his mother’s name on his forearm.
Tristan Thompson
Thompson has a couple of tattoos, including the initials “G2S” meaning “Grind To Shine” and the text “I Am My Brother’s Keeper” on his chest. In a 2012 article about tattoos in the league, he shared his thoughts about basketball-related tattoos:
“I wanted to get something that was going to mean something so I won’t regret it when I’m 50,” Thompson said. “A lot of guys get tattoos because maybe they’re drunk one night or they think something is cool at the time. I’d never get a basketball tattoo because basketball only lasts so long. When you stop playing the game, it’s going to look (dumb).”
Dion Waiters
Waiters kept a rookie year diary for Dime Magazine this year. His March entry talks through all of his tattoos to date, and discusses his plans for future designs.
Luke Walton
Better just to leave it in Walton’s own words: “The first one I got here, I got in college, and I got the Grateful Dead skeletons but with basketballs instead of canes and hats.”
Players without tattoos:
Omri Cassia
Kevin Jones
Shaun Livingston
Chris Quinn
Anderson Varejao
Tyler Zeller
Wayne Ellington’s tattoo
Just noticed that Wayne Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep. This is a pretty good place to hide a tattoo I guess. Team and overall stats have been adjusted.
Minnesota Timberwolves, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below average number of tattooed players, but their percentage went up a bit from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic’s tattoo of a knight standing atop a heap of skulls is one of the best-loved tattoos in the league, inspiring a t-shirt, impassioned blog posts, and countless remarks that the design fits his game perfectly. Timberwolves blog A Wolf Among Wolves got some great quotes from Pek about the tattoo (“It’s just me and my progress this year,” says Pek, “the drawing is something like me.”) and Sports by Brooks offers an interesting historic review of the tattoo’s potential relationship with the history of Pekovic’s homeland, Montenegro.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Ricky Rubio
Much like fellow Spaniard Rudy Fernandez, Rubio’s only tattoo is a Chinese character on his wrist.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both arms.
Players without tattoos:
J.J. Barea
Wes Johnson
Malcolm Lee
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
Derrick Williams
Minnesota Timberwolves, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 38% (5 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below-average percentage of tattooed players but it’s higher then their win percentage for the last three seasons. Yikes!
—
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic has a classic looking tattoo of an armored warrior calmly lording over his kills, the kind of thing you’d see in 70s biker culture. A pile of skulls is not an unusual feature for a tattoo, but considering Pekovic’s childhood in Montenegro coincided with the Bosnian War and Croation War, it feels heavy.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Sebastian Telfair
On Telfair’s back is tattooed the words “LUCKY ME,” a reference to the Jay Z song of the same name.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both shoulders.
Players without tattoos:
Wayne Ellington
Jonny Flynn
Lazar Hayward
Wesley Johnson
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
