Everyone has tattoos these days, especially in the NBA. But if this art develops and democratizes, it has not always had a good image… The proof, in the 90′s, a star almost got fired for having too much on his body. Times have changed a lot!
Today more than ever, tattoos are accepted by our society, and even in certain professional fields. So obviously, the reluctant will always have trouble facing covered arms or marked faces, but the fact is that the tattoo is mostly recognized as an art and above all a means of expression in its own right.
On NBA courts they are also the norm today, since almost all players have them, in totally different styles. Stephen Curry has done in sobriety with discreet symbols and a sentence in hebrew whose meaning is quite beautiful, when a young star like Deandre Ayton bet on excess for an effect that was not necessarily successful…
Dennis Rodman almost suspended because of his tattoos
Anyway, to get there, it took precursors who defied taboos and prohibitions, and this is particularly the case of Allen Iverson and especially Dennis Rodman. In the 90s, the interior of the Pistons and Bulls stood out with its unique style, which did not necessarily please the big boss David Stern. In an interview with comedian Kevin Hart, the Worm returned to a rather crazy meeting with the commissionaire.
I started getting tattoos before any other NBA player thought of getting tattoos. I remember when I went to see David Stern in his office in New York, he told me that if I got one more tattoo, he would kick me out of the league… He just threw some oil on me on the fire, the same evening I was getting a new tattoo. I continued, and I made piercings too.
Dennis Rodman does have tattoos all over his body, and not all of them are “delicate”, so we can understand David Stern’s anger at the time, his ultimate goal being to restore the league’s image and reach a wider audience. To give you an idea, the interior of the Bulls has a naked woman in the back, which is not necessarily made to speak to a family audience…
Even today, at a time when the tattoo is accepted, Dennis Rodman would be a UFO with his many parts and his piercings. So in the 90′s, we can imagine the shock among “ordinary” Americans and David Stern.
