AFL Players Tattoos

Footy Stars Line Up to be Inked

Tattoos amongst AFL (Australian Football League) players seems to be a growing trend. More and more of them seem to be lining up to be inked. Whereas with other sports such as soccer, NRL or NFL it is very hard to see if a player has a tattoo on his upper arm but that is not the case with AFL or footy as it is known in Australia. The standard AFL guernsey is sleeveless although a few players do wear the long sleeve top. As a result footy players don't really get to hide their tattoos while on the field.

In most careers visible tattoos are a definite no-no. Not so in AFL! There are a number of players such as the players listed below who have tattoos on their inner arms. Their tattoos can be seen quite often particularly when they reach up to take a mark or score a goal. The reason for footy players getting tattoos is as diverse as with any other tattoo enthusiast. Some players seem to get them to mark milestones in their life or career while others get them because they look great!

AFL Players with upper arms / inner arms tattoos:

• Spider Everett - Full sleeve tribal tattoo
• Brendan Fevola - Kanji tattoo and tribal design
• Nathan Brown - Cross
• Cameron Mooney - Tribal tattoo
• Barry Hall - Redback spider tattoo design
• Kayne Pettifer
• Andrew Mcleod - Aboriginal tattoo design
• Jonathan Hay - Pacific Island style tattoo
• Troy Makepeace - Tribal armband tattoo
• Courtney Johns
• Heath Scotland
• Byron Pickett

AFL Players with back tattoos / lower back tattoos:

• Cameron Mooney - Kanji tattoo
• Nick Riewoldt - Kanji tattoo
• 
  
Mark Ricciuto

This is not a complete list of AFL players with tattoos. If you know of any other players with tattoos please let us know.

http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/tattoos-002-afl.html

Cover-up Tattoos

Usually when we think of cover-up tattoos we think of an old lover whose name was tattooed in a moment of madness on some part of the body (usually highly visible) only to be regretted after the relationship suddenly ended. This is somewhat of a cliche and most often not the case.

Generally a lot of people are presenting to tattoo studios for cover-up tattoos simply because they want to touch up an old faded tattoo or rework an old design that does not resonate with them any longer. It may be the original tattoo design was not the most professional job or is just starting to look a bit dated.

This can often happen when a small tattoo was done without considering the bigger picture. For me personally that meant getting a small kanji tattoo covered over with a bigger tattoo that meant more to me. There is nothing wrong with rethinking your ink and covering up with a bigger and better tattoo.

Before... © Pedro Fraga

In the last few years there has been quite a bit of advancement with tattoo inks. This has led to a whole new variety of colors and inks that look brighter and better than the inks of old. In that sense many old tattoos can actually be made to look much better than what they did beforehand without taking away from the skill of the original artist of course ;-)

Many artist also specialize in cover-up work so it is a good idea to check through their portfolios to see some of the cover-up tattoos they have done. Don't settle for an artist who is content to cover up your old tattoo with heavy blackwork but is willing to use some creativity in integrating the old design with a newer better one.

Even if the original tattoo was black it is still possible to work the old design into a newer more colorful design with a little bit of imagination either by yourself or the artist who will probably have a better idea what will work and what will end up really dark and undefined. Remember it is your body so you decide what the finished outcome is.

...After © Pedro Fraga

http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/cover-up-tattoos.html

Gamer Tattoos

Hardcore Gamers Fight Back

A tattoo artist friend of mine said to me recently that if he had a choice over tattooing or playing computer games he would choose the games. Now don't get me wrong - he is not some neophyte who has just started and doesn't know where he is at. Far from it. He has cut his teeth in tattooing but just prefers to hang out in Hack and Slash rather than in the tattoo studio.

I thought this was amusing until he said that he wouldn't have a problem chucking in his career as a tattoo artist to become a full-time gamer. It was then I realized how passionate he was about his games. You see I don't really play games. I was never any good at them. I had grown up with Atari and more recently bought myself a PlayStation but only ever used it to play music through.

Hardcore gamer shows his Atari tattoos - Courtesy of Good Deal Games

It was only until I went to Japan that the whole gamer culture was opened to me. Up until then I had always associated gamers as being young teenage boys with pale skin and spots who spent all of their time in their bedroom with the curtains closed. How wrong I was.

It made me realize that the stereotype I had in my head for years about gamers was all wrong and that there were hundreds of thousands of people such as my tattoo artist friend who were the norm not the exception. They were the kind of people you would see at Burning Man Festival and think to yourself how rad they were.

Triforce tattoos are not just for geeks- Courtesy of Joystiq

Then I came across a story about this family who all decided to get a tattoo after their mom passed away. One of them said - "since we had just been through some bad stuff, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Grief's funny like that. We were all gamers, there were three brothers, so the Triforce seemed a natural fit. We made the decision to do it, then promptly didn't for two years, because I was a wimp."

This story blew me away on so many different levels. I am always one to encourage people to think seriously before they get a tattoo and try make sure it means something to them. This made me think that you don't have to get some portrait tattoo or a tattoo design of a headstone or some other predictable tattoo to honor a loved ones memory.

Old gamer shows his Triforce tattoos - Courtesy of Joystiq

The Triforce tattoo was completely fitting. It probably said so much more to them than some cheesy memorial tattoo. They all got different parts of the Triforce filled in. Their Dad got the full thing on his right arm because he already had a tattoo on his left. One of the brothers got it done on his calf. Another brother got it on his forearm. Full on dudes...respect!

http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/gamer-tattoos.html

Modern Tattoos

Quest for Deeper Meaning

It is about time these cultural vampires in the mainstream media woke up to the fact that tattoos are not some passing fad. Admittedly tattoos have been getting a fair bit of press lately in part driven by high profile celebrities flashing their ink in public. Or shows such Miami Ink with their carefully chosen tattoo artists making the whole tattooing process look like some kind of modern alchemy much the same way that thousands of wannabes wanted to become DJ's in the late 1990's when the DJ was revered as some kind of shaman.

I believe this is only part of the story. I would venture to say that the main reason for the massive increase in people wanting tattoos goes much deeper. Believe or not the vast majority of people get tattoos not in some vain attempt to be part of the crowd or cool but because part of them recognizes the deeper significance of tattoos and need for something beyond the mundane. To the tired and cynical hack this hunger for meaning is completely lost on them. Possibly because they cannot see beyond the vacuous consumer driven culture they are trapped in.

Tattoos have long been part of human culture

They fear anyone who is not part of their mindless consumerist culture. Fear is what it really is no matter how subtle its disguise. It shines through in everything they write from the cliche ridden nonsense disguised as journalism in the culture section of mainstream newspapers to the ultra conservative fundamentalists who warn of the evils and regrets of those who get tattoos. To them anyone who steps outside this mass hallucination known as consensus reality is immediately singled out from the herd and subject to ridicule.

It is the same form of mind control which brainwashes kids into accepting everything they are taught in school and told never to question authority or the massive lies which pass as history. No wonder people grow up to be mindless sheep when they are indoctrinated from such an early age. History really has become a set of lies agreed upon to keep people in their places and maintain the status quo.

Tattoos often have a deeper symbolism than merely ink on skin

The funny thing is that once you step outside consensus reality you begin to see how shaky the ground is upon which their spectacular lies are built. The people who are controlling the instruments of power such as the mainstream media know this and this is the reason why they use ridicule to suppress anyone who dares to challenge the official set of lies.

Getting tattoos used to be a form of rebellion. In many ways it still is to people who feel as though they are constantly bombarded with advertisements for designer labels and sucked into believing they need this or that to make their lives more meaningful. Well guess what? We have had consumerist culture shoved in our faces since the 1940's and it still hasn't made us any happier as human beings.

Tattoos have long been practiced in a quest for deeper meaning.

http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/modern-tattoos-meaning.html

Tattoos as Ritual

Blood, Pain and Sacred Symbols
Tattoos have long been associated with rituals amongst tribal people. Young men would often be tattooed to mark their transition from boyhood to adulthood and to mark other rites of passage. The process of tattooing is deeply symbolic and contains many of the elements associated with ritual such as blood, symbolism and the awakening of the astral body through the experience of pain.

Tattoos and the modern practice of tattooing is seen by many as an almost mystical experience akin to the exchange of energy experienced during tantric sex or modern day sex magick. In many ways the level of trust involved in opening your body up to the tattooist is equivalent if not greater than the abandonment associated with the ecstasy and release of sex.

Tattoos as modern ritual © Tao of Tattoos

Nothing is more personal than giving a person permission to inflict a permanent mark on the body whilst drawing blood causing pain in the process. All the elements of ritual are present in this very act from the marking of the body very often with sacred symbols, the drawing of blood (life-force) and inducing pain which is seen by many as something spiritual.

Before the advent of modern medicine many people believed that pain rather than being an inconvenience was something that brought the person closer to their God. They didn't attempt to mask the pain with painkillers but experienced it fully. Perhaps practices such as branding, suspension, amputations and other extreme body modifications are a reaction to the spiritual emptiness or 'pain' of modern day living.

Sacred Thai tattoos © Northern Thailand

This spiritual emptiness of the modern world manifests in the obvious need for people to seek out meaning in their lives. This is apparent to anyone working in the tattoo industry who will tell you about the surge in people seeking tattoos that have a ascribed meaning to them. Whether that be a tattoo with some kind of spiritual significance or even a tattoo which takes the form of a sacred symbol or image of an Eastern deity.

Symbols have been practiced for thousands of years for religious, magickal and sacred reasons. We have become so bombarded by advertising images that we are almost immune to their presence. It is not surprising that symbols, sigils and seals would be used as tattoos. Many people are beginning to suggest that the placement of sacred symbols on their bodies can help with illness or grief.

Eastern tattoos and suspensions have become popular © Modified Mind

The practice of yantra tattoos amongst the people of the Cambodia and other Far Eastern countries has a deeper meaning than merely warding off the 'Evil Eye' that our modern medicine has yet to catch up with. Not too long ago the medical establishment in their absolute arrogance and closed mindedness scoffed at the practice of acupuncture and now doctors are refusing to treat people with tattoos. What does that tell you?

Modern life which is absolutely devoid of ritual often chews up many people and spits them out onto the streets or if they are lucky enough they get trapped in the endless Get Up...Go to Work... Come Home...Eat...Go to Bed paradigm like mice on a wheel. Tattoos seen in this light can be a transcendent experience with the process of being tattooed, the choice of tattoo symbols or imagery and the pain/permanence factor all contributing to being a modern day ritual of sorts.

http://www.tao-of-tattoos.com/tattoos-as-ritual.html