This Tattoo Trend Must Be Stopped

Both athletes and the fans that love them have been known for being more than a little bit superstitious. Everybody seems to have their little routine that they go through in order to bring good luck to their team. For a while the most outlandish acts were often carried solely by players; Turk Wendell, for example, used to brush his teeth between innings in addition to a ton of other goofy little idiosyncrasies. The tide has turned and now it is fans that are doing the most drastic things to bring luck to their beloved teams, often in the form of tattoos.

No, we aren’t talking about just getting the logo of a team tattooed, that’s been commonplace for years. Instead we are talking about these fans that fancy themselves prognosticators when they walk into the tattoo shop and get ink proclaiming their team the champion well before the end of a season. While some people might think of this as the ultimate way of showing faith in your team, the rest of us think of it as an almost guaranteed way to end up looking like a fool. We saw this most recently when a very optimistic Mets fan declared his team the champs before they even played a game against Kansas City. Unfortunately for fans of the Amazins the team fell three wins short of following through on the tattooed prediction.

Back in 2014 we spoke with a very lucky Seattle Seahawks fan that got himself a Super Bowl champions tattoo at the very beginning of the season. Lo and behold the Seahawks went and actually won the Super Bowl. After seeing the good fortune of this one fan seemingly thousands of fans came out of the woodwork to add their own predictive ink, the results have been less than stellar. The tales of woe start back in Seattle when a similarly confident Seahawks fan predicted a repeat. It looked like the Seahawks were blessed with great tattoo related luck right up until Russell Wilson didn’t throw a pick and give the New England Patriots their fourth ring. Only a month later there was this Kentucky fan who now has a constant reminder of how close his team came to a perfect season before they were upended by Frank Kaminsky and the Wisconsin Badgers.

These are some of the close calls. Then there are the people who have gone and gotten the ink when, honestly, their team hasn’t had a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning it all. Like this Detroit Lions fan. Dude, you need to win at least three playoff games to win the Super Bowl (four for Wild Card teams), maybe when your franchise has only won a single playoff game since 1957 you should hold off on getting the tattoo. And considering the turmoil the Eagles went through in the off season was it really wise to get ink predicting they’d hoist the Lombardi trophy this season? Not to mention the placement of the tattoo guaranteeing that everyone will see it at all times. You can’t hide a head tattoo, my friend.

This trend has to stop. It is beyond idiocy. I say this from the point of view of someone who is more than a little superstitious—I have a lucky hat, I never talk during a no-hitter, I take the smallest cues as potential signs pointing toward inevitable victory—but these tattoos do absolutely nothing to help the fortunes of your team. All you’re doing is opening yourself up to being the butt of jokes when your beloved team more than likely falls short of the title.

The only possible scenario where a championship predicting tattoo could actually serve as some motivation is if a coach forced everyone on the team to get them before the season. Think about that for a second, those tattoos would create a team that would be busting their asses all season long to avoid potential embarrassment. Not to mention, it would probably be the most swag-tastic move a team could ever make. This is the one and only way we would ever endorse this trend.

So, unless you are a professional athlete hell bent on motivating yourself, DO NOT GET THESE TATTOOS. Just, don’t. Please. And remember, if you don’t heed our warning, there are plenty of amazing tattoo artists who specialize in cover ups.