Tattoos and Professional Atheletes

NBA players, football players are all sporting their tattoos, will tattoo removal be the next popularity craze?

America's favorite pastime has always been the great wide world of sports. This passion has caused the sports and the people playing them to become very influential in our culture.

Professional athletes are portrayed as icons in our society, with millions of enthusiasts imitating their dress and style. Wealth and fame daunts almost every player of professional sports including basketball, baseball, football, even golf.

A majority of professional athletes appear on television and are seen gracing the covers of popular magazines. All, for the most part, are financially fortunate making sizable incomes. Leading brand companies, such as Nike and Hanes endorse these players, making them even larger idols to their fans. Players are showcased throughout their sport's seasons on nationally televised games and commercials. Adoring fans take pride in wearing clothing labels and brand names shoes that are endorsed by their favorite athletes. Some fan fanatics even get the same tattoo designs as their top players.

The NBA (National Basketball Association) is one professional sport with heavy tattoo "coverage." Nearly 30% of NBA players have at least one tattoo, compared to approximately 4% percent of the total U.S. population.

The uniforms worn by NBA players do not cover as much of the body as the other professional sport uniforms, which is why these prominent displays of art are so visibible. This is not to say the athletes in other professional sports such as the NFL (National Football League), NHL (National Hockey League) and MLB (Major League Baseball) don't have tattoos under wraps.

The tattoos sported by NBA players, as well as other popular sports players, have become part of a style image. Similar to the brands people wear, celebrity endorsements, through wearing a tattoo, are becoming more visible.

As fad followers, Americans are definitely catching on to the sports tattoo trend. So will the next trend setters actually be removing your tattoo "label?" Only time will tell.