![]() The following season, his Converse DRod sneakers incorporated the tribal tattoo on his left hand into the design of the grip pattern on the bottom of the shoe.īy the time Rodman’s tenure with the Bulls ended in 1998, the Deseret News in Utah estimated that 130 NBA players had a combined total of 250 visible tattoos. During the team’s 1997 playoff run, the collar of his signature Converse All Star shoes featured the sunray lines seen on his left shoulder. This was also the point when Rodman began to link his sneakers to his body art. Now fast-forwarding, I think it’s the best way to express yourself on the court without using words or your game.” At first, people might have thought it didn’t have a place in the game. “He didn’t fit the norm,” Steve Wiebe, a tattoo artist who has worked on numerous NBA players, said of Rodman. Now, 26 years later, the Hall of Famer has trademarked his tattoo artwork, with many of the pieces serving as key graphics for his newly launched Rodman Brand apparel company. Stocked in the Bulls’ team store at the United Center, production on the shirts was halted and the two sides eventually settled for an undisclosed amount. Related Story ‘The Last Dance’ highlights Michael Jordan’s special bond with Dennis Rodman Read now In 1996, Rodman’s tattoos became the centerpiece of a $1 million lawsuit after a company named Fanatix produced a run of several thousand unauthorized long-sleeved shirts that featured each and every one of his above-the-waist tattoos. “I was getting tattoos almost every week. “It really didn’t explode until I went to Chicago,” he said. By the time he arrived in San Antonio in 1993, he had 11 tattoos and an ongoing rotation of hair colors.īut it was during the Chicago Bulls’ championship runs from 1996 to 1998 that the tattoos began to take on a life of their own. His first visible tattoo was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on his right bicep, just under it, a rose-thorned cross with a caption that reads “Live To Ride” / “Ride To Live.” He later added “Mi Vida Loca” in script atop the motorcycle, as well as a dolphin leaping along his left shoulder. Rodman’s tattoo collection grew over time. “Just have tattoos, weird hair, wear makeup, cool clothes.” “It’s more like it was an everyday thing to do,” he said of his decision to dive into body art. Rodman’s early aesthetic was inspired by London’s punk scene, where he was enamored with artists’ “colored hair and platform shoes,” along with more “classic” tattoos that featured pin-up girls, hearts with arrows, initials and nautical symbols, which were popular with sailors. There’s even an Instagram handle with over 157,000 followers - that shares daily images and content about players’ tattoos.ĭuring the Chicago Bulls’ championship runs from 1996 to 1998, Dennis Rodman’s tattoos began to take on a life of their own. and the heavily tatted Ball brothers in today’s era.Īccording to a count by Andscape, 341 out of 618 roster players – 55% of the league – sported visible tattoos during the 2021-22 regular season. After Rodman, the lineup of basketball players interested in body art grew, slowly at first, and then exponentially, from Allen Iverson and Cherokee Parks in the mid-1990s to LeBron James, JR Smith and Chris “Birdman” Andersen in the 2000s, and Jordan Clarkson, Kevin Durant, Kelly Oubre Jr. What began as something different has now gone mainstream. “So I said, ‘I’m just going to go out there and do something different.’ ” “I was just trying to break out of the monotony and the noise and all the deceitfulness the sports world was bringing to me at that time,” he said. “I just got back to San Antonio and went to a parlor – just got a tattoo,” he recalled with a smile. ![]() Instead, after his meeting with Stern, the rebellious star decided to get even more. We don’t want you to have any more tattoos.’ I said, ‘All right.’ ” “David Stern said, ‘We don’t want you to get tattoos. ![]() “The NBA called me up and said, ‘We need to talk,’ ” he recalled of the association’s request for a special meeting at its New York office. He can also recall when his tattoos became a problem in the mid-1990s. It was along his left shoulder, strategically hidden under his Detroit Pistons jersey. Dennis Rodman remembers his first tattoo in the late 1980s, a tribute to his newborn daughter, Alexis.
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