The Golden State Tattooed Warrior Princess

On July 24, 2026, the top performers in the WNBA ascended upon the United Center in Chicago for a photo shoot celebrating the All-Star Class of 2026. Among the leading vote-getters was Gabby Williams, whose team, the Golden State Valkyries, was on an eight-game winning streak. Her wide smile in the “Team Coop” photo seemed to indicate she was privy to the 18 points she was about to drop on the opposing squad two days later in front of a record crowd.

For Williams, it was a memorable All-Star weekend, with plenty of photo ops at the “Orange Carpet” event leading up to the big game. Wearing an all-black high-low skirt with a corset top, opera-length gloves, a golden pouch clutch, and sunglasses, the 5-foot-11-inch forward showed off an extensive tattoo collection that decorates her right arm, right thigh, left bicep, and left foot.

In a matter of 72 hours, the second-most-watched All-Star game in the history of the “W” was highlighted by Williams’ avant-garde fashion sense, her proficiency as a two-way player, the same competitive nature that earned her one of the winningest careers in the history of UConn women’s basketball, and childhood manifestations.

Hoop Dreams and Tattoos

Growing up in western Nevada during the 2000s, Williams had hoop dreams of someday running up and down the hardwood floor like two of her biggest inspirations: 2001 NBA MVP Allen Iverson and four-time WNBA Champion Seimone Augustus. Watching this pair of Hall of Famers donning noticeable body art gave her what you might call “Inked Dreams.” In a clever, anti-establishment move that would have made the great Iverson proud, Williams procured her first tattoo, on her shoulder, as a freshman in high school.

Eight years and two National Championships later, the 2018 Cheryl Miller Award winner has already joined her idols in the record books of professional basketball lore — in some capacities. In contrast to their ink, many of the tattoos in Williams’ growing collection are steeped in anime, classic fresco paintings, and her mother’s heritage in France, where Williams is a dual citizen.

She soon crossed paths with Lil B, the renowned tattoo artist from Bordeaux, France, who was honing his tebori shading skills. “Back when I became pro, I was always watching tattoo time lapses on all these Pinterest and Instagram pages, just looking at tattoos. I came across Lil B and just became a huge fan of his and thought that he was (creating) something that no one else in the world could do,” Williams shared with Inked Magazine. “Lil B is pretty famous for doing the La Pietà tattoo. So, when I saw it on his Instagram, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s my Michelangelo brain and his world colliding,’ so he was the perfect one to do it.”

After six days of sessions, Williams had an anime-themed sleeve with characters from “Attack on Titan,” “Spirited Away,” and the award-winning manga “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.” The piece was finished in time for Williams’ Olympic run with the French Women’s National Basketball Team in 2021.

In the years that followed, the anime-inspired work of Anastasia Blackwood, another European-based tattoo artist, found its way onto Williams’ skin. “She’s Russian, but she was in Hungary, and I was playing (basketball during the WNBA off-season) in a town called Sopron. I came across her page, and I thought it was amazing,” Williams recalled. “She was only an hour drive away, so I hit her up, and she did my left arm and my thigh.”

The two portraits inked on Williams by Blackwood depict Captain Levi Ackerman and Eren Yeager, a pair of fictional characters from “Attack on Titan,” Williams’ favorite anime.

Bringing a Defensive Aura

As the co-captain, leading scorer, and indispensable help defender for the Valkyries, Williams is an extension of her head coach, Natalie Nakase, who rose through the ranks of women’s basketball with a defensive philosophy that thrives on the instincts of its most disruptive stoppers on the perimeter. This year, Williams and the reigning Coach of the Year are a part of something extra special in the Bay Area: their team leads the league in overall defensive rating.

Williams’ tattooed hands and fingers — all of which have ink dedicated to musicians like Prince, Freddie Mercury, and her mom’s favorite group AC/DC — helped steer her team toward the fourth-best odds of winning the WNBA Championship trophy. Her teammates are already chiming in about what her next tattoo should be.

“My teammates want a tattoo on me,” Williams said. “I might do another anime piece on my back. I’m not sure of what yet. I am not someone who comes in (to a tattoo session) with my own ideas. I sit there, I hire (the tattoo artists), and I am paying them to do what they do best.”

Williams recently surpassed 2,000 career points in the WNBA. In an era that is by far the most watched, most lucrative, most forward-thinking, and most tattooed, she is one of the most standout faces of the league. The Valkyries clinched a playoff spot about five weeks before the regular season ended in late September. Time will soon reveal whether or not there will be a 2026 WNBA Championship banner in the rafters next July, when they host the 2027 All-Star Game in San Francisco.

As the chase for her first championship ring in the “W” wages on, so does the likelihood that Williams will someday have a legacy that leaves a lasting imprint on the next generation of ballers seeking to express themselves as members of the tattoo community.