Did Neymar Steal David Beckham’s Tattoo Design?

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Apparently when they aren’t on the pitch dominating every other team in Spain’s Primera Division the members of Barcelona like to spend their time at the tattoo shop. In a Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain both Messi and Neymar were spotted with brand new ink. Messi’s drew the bulk of the attention since the Argentinian had only a few tattoos previously, naturally the large tattoo on his arm stood out more than the heavily tattooed Neymar’s new work did. Well, that and Messi is probably the best soccer player on the planet.

Yet, for the tattoo aficionados here at Inked we thought Neymar’s tattoo was a little bit more intriguing than his teammate’s for a very specific reason—it looks a hell of a lot like David Beckham’s neck tattoo. As in, we get the feeling he went into a tattoo shop with a picture of Beckham and asked for the same thing. Perhaps he’s drying to court a transfer to Man U while he’s at it. Instead of being the next Pelé (a comparison made often by the media) Neymar is aiming to replicate the career of the English legend.

OK, we’re obviously just having a little tongue-in-cheek fun with Neymar on this one. As any tattoo artist will tell you, crosses are one of the most popular tattoo designs of all. So it shouldn’t be surprising that both Neymar and Beckham wanted to express their faith through tattoos. It’s just a tiny bit suspect that two of the world’s most famous footballers have what appears to be near identical tattoos in the same place.

Check out this gallery of some of the most notable tattoos related to the Beautiful Game.