As a tattoo blogger and enthusiast, a lot of my non-tattooed friends often ask me, "Why do professional athletes have such lousy tattoos?"
A good point.
When you think "great tattoos" you don't picture your favorite basketball, football, or baseball player. Even the majority of Olympians with ink seemed to have rather plain and unimaginative work. But they're (for the most part) amateurs, so I can understand a little more their lack of great body art.
On Sunday, during the AFC championship football game, a friend of mine tweeted: "I make a million dollars a year but still get tattooed in my friend's kitchen" --60% of the NFL.
I often fantasize about coming into money and listing the top ten artists I would have work on me. They are justifiably expensive.
So, I was shaking my head recently, when news of New York Jets' Head Coach Rex Ryan's fairly awful tattoo exploded in the media.
If you missed the story, check it out here. Don't get me wrong, if you want to get a cartoon of your wife wearing the jersey of your starting quarterback, that's your prerogative. But if you make $2.875 million a year, you can afford a better tattoo. Seriously.
Before you blow up my comments section with angry rebuttals, take a deep breath. Look at the link and the photo of Ryan's tattoo. Could you do better? Unless Mark Sanchez tattooed it himself, I think Rex Ryan got a bad deal.