Athletes have had a long-standing love affair with tattoos. While some get them simply for the sake of it, others use them as a form of self-expression, showcasing what matters most to them. Many tattoos carry deep meaning—some feature the names of spouses and children, while others reflect spiritual beliefs.
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NFL players are not lagging in this aspect either, with many getting a picture of the Super Bowl and their draft position, as Quinyon Mitchell did recently. However, Shannon Sharpe refuses to expose his body to the ink.
During the latest episode of The Nightcap, Sharpe unhesitatingly stated that he would never get a tattoo. The tight end might’ve taken brutal hits his entire career but he’s not ready to take the pain from tattoos.
“I don’t care if I win 15 Super Bowls, I ain’t getting a tattoo. Hell, no. That thing hurt. That ain’t going to happen,” he said emphatically.
Did Shannon Sharpe ever consider getting a tattoo? Surprisingly, the three-time Super Bowl champion was once willing to get inked—for his grandmother. Everyone knows how much he loves and respects her—she raised him and shaped him into the man he is today. Naturally, he wanted to honor her with a tattoo of her name, Mary V. Porter.
However, just as he was about to go through with it, he heard that familiar voice in his head—his grandmother’s disapproval. According to Sharpe, she hated tattoos, and even though Shannon’s sister thought it would be a nice gesture, his grandma’s disapproval was enough to make him reconsider.
“I was telling my sister (Libby) about it and she was like, ‘That’d be so nice.’ My sister found something where my grandmother wrote her name, Mary V. Porter. I thought about it, I said, ‘Libby, I’d love to, but you know Granny would be so mad. She hated tattoos,” Sharpe recounted.
“She’s like, ‘Don’t mark your body up… I was going to take it (grandma’s name) to a tattoo (studio) and have it on my heart… That’s where I was gonna put it. And I thought about it — Granny would probably roll over that grave.”
What about Ocho? He loves his tattoos—especially Bible verses. In fact, he’s covered in 44 of them. One of his earliest tattoos was a Bible verse, but when he showed it to his grandmother, she was far from pleased. “She was pissed, boy,” he said. Her disapproval, however, didn’t stop him from getting more.
By his senior year of high school, he had already collected 22 tattoos. There’s hardly a part of his body—except his face—that hasn’t been touched by ink. So why did he get so many? He admits it was part of a rebellious phase. However, one thing he never considered was tattooing a woman’s name on his body. For Ocho, it was always about the Bible and his faith in Christianity.
“I’m normally covered up all the way, man. From my ankle to all the way up… I almost did my face by accident, I’m glad I didn’t… Nothing big… I was going through a phase… I was gonna put a little cross,” he added.
Many NFL players have ink on their bodies. Darius Slay believed being a football player with tattoos would make him look scary and mean. So he’s got fifty of them. The main ones are the face of Jesus Christ and his brother’s tombstone. He’s also got a tattoo of himself and Kobe Bryant as well as of his kids.
Isiah Rodgers got a tattoo of Spongebob and Spider-Man as well as the names of his mother and two sisters. Patrick Mahomes also has tattoos on his left leg. The shin portion of the tattoo shows a person walking up a stairway to a large cross in the sky. From the side, the ink shows images of a handprint and footprint from his daughter Sterling. The back of his leg depicts a large red rose.
