I’m from Durham, North Carolina—the land of the Duke Blue Devils. I grew up loving college basketball and thinking the Cameron Crazies were the coolest things ever. I even got to go to a few Duke basketball games—my parent’s friends had season tickets and would give us the pair when they were out of town. On these occasions, my dad would alternate taking me and my sister. I went first and promptly reported back to Lizz that it “wasn’t that fun” and was “kind of boring” so that the next time the chance arose, she would let me be “the nice sister” and go in her place. (The cruelest irony of this story is that my sister went on to go to Duke and, yes, she camped out for a full week to get tickets to games. I was a mean older sister.)
I’m getting away from the point. At home in North Carolina several years ago, I noticed a guy with a blue devil tattoo on his arm. It was small—tasteful if you will. I liked it and it never even occurred to me that it was a little extreme to get a sports tattoo. Until the other day when I saw a photo online of a guy with the biggest Boston Red Sox tattoo ever.
I instantly thought, “I hope you were drunk when you got that thing.” So now I don’t know what to think. Here are some photos for you to look at and ponder the question, “Getting a tattoo of your favorite team: Really cool or as stupid as getting Daffy Duck?”
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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up is a column by Kate Torgovnick. Formerly appearing on Tuesdays, now look for it every Friday. The perfect way to ring in your weekend, right?
This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 4:43 pm and is filed under General, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
There are currently 6 responses
I always thought they were completely lame – and then I married a man with a sports tattoo. My Star Trek-obsessed, musical-loving, super-nerdy-stand-up-comedian husband is also the biggest college football fan I know, and has Sebastian the Ibis – of the Miami Hurricanes – on his bicep. If I had known about the tattoo before the rest of the stuff, I may have judged him unfairly as a jock-ish douche; thankfully, that did not happen! (And it made me reconsider my tendency to judge in that sort of way, so double-yay.) And hey, at least it shows that the person is passionate about something…
As a die-hard Mets fan, though I don’t have a Mets tattoo yet, I can definitely understand and appreciate the sports tattoo. Love for your team is a lifelong passion, its permanent, not some passing phase. Thats the amazing part of baseball for me; that while everything else in life and the world in general is forever changing, your team will always be there. And unlike some of the stars or butterflies I’ve seen friends get tattooed, I consider that meaningful enough to pay a poermanent tribute to.
Amy, what a great story. Sebastian the Ibis—that is intense. I’m glad you didn’t judge this lovely sports fan and have come to love the tattoo (or at least tolerate it). And Megan, true dat. Better than a butterfly.
I just got SOX (Boston Red Sox) tattoo on the back of my neck not even a week ago. I thought about it for a long time but realized…”I’ve loved the Red Sox all my life and will always be a hard core Red Sox fan.” So I don’t think sports tattoos are stupid at all. As long as it’s something you’re not going to regret.
I know ow passionate some people can be about their home team. I’m from liverpool england and i see people with the Liverpool football badge and i thin it looks ok but when i see another team i’m not passionate about or anything sport i just think it looks stupid.
End of the day though, as long as it holds meaning to the person wearing it, then it doesn’t matter.
Ha, actually my parents just got matching Red Sox tattoos today, but they do have a meaning to them. The design is a shamrock with the sox emblem in the center, then two hands on the sides like a claddagh, then Celtic knots woven out from each hand and meeting on the back of their ankles. My dad is a die hard fan and irish. My mom is a fan too, but she got it more because a lot of our great family memories happened at sox games. Really getting a tattoo of your favorite sports team can represent so much more then advertising your team
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