O'Neal has a tattoo on his left forearm of a player dunking a basketball inside a target, with the words "Public Enemy No. 1." O'Neal explains, "I'm public enemy number one, because when you're the best, everybody's out to try to shoot you down."
On his right bicep, he has a fist holding a diamond, an ankh (the Egyptian symbol for eternal life), and the acronym "TWISM" (The World Is Mine) and words "Against the Law." ("Because I'm so good it should be against the law," O'Neal says with a wink). Some of his tattoos are for family, too. Above the diamond on his bicep, he has the name "Taahairh" (his daughter). He's also got wrist tattoos of his kids' names that he calls "bracelets of love."
Jamie Peachey
Amar'e Stoudemire's "POVERTY" tattoo.
Jamie Peachey
Jason Richardson's tattoo tribute to his family.
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His right forearm bears the words "Lil' Warrior," a tattoo that stems from O'Neal's first and middle names (Shaquille Rashaun), which mean "Little Warrior" in Arabic. Below the words is a tattoo of a huge muscle man. "This is me right here when I take my clothes off," O'Neal says smiling, pointing to the buff tattoo.
While Richardson, Barnes, Stoudemire, and O'Neal sport more ink than the rest of the team, two other Suns have smaller, less noticeable tattoos. Reserve forward Louis Amundson, the former NBA D-League Rookie of the Year, has one tat. It's on the right side of his chest and has the words "R.I.P. 34" surrounded by flames. He got the tattoo to commemorate the life of his best friend, Billy Feeney, a teammate at Monarch High School in Louisville, Colorado, and a player for the University of New Mexico Lobos. Feeney hanged himself in August 2003. Amundson doubts he'll get another tattoo.
Guard Leandro Barbosa has three small tattoos. On the inside of his right wrist, he has a star. On the back of his neck, he has the words "Love, sacrifice, and union." On his lower left rib, he has his mother's name tattooed in Asian characters. Barbosa's mother, Dona, died in November after fighting pneumonia for more than a month in a Brazilian hospital.
Suns legend Dan Majerle, now an assistant coach for the team, has a single "secret" tattoo. On his right ankle, he's got a tiny lightning bolt, which he says he got because his nickname is "Thunder" but also because, "It was for a girl. I was young and dumb." When Majerle pulled off his shoe to show the tattoo after a recent practice, Suns coach Terry Porter couldn't resist ribbing him. "Don't show that tattoo, Dan," Porter said. "Show the little flower tattoo you have!" (Porter was kidding, we hope).
Reasons vary as to why the remaining Suns have no ink on their bodies. Steve Nash, who wasn't named an All-Star this year for the first time since rejoining the Suns in 2004, says tattoos look cool but he has "never felt the urge to get one." (If he were to get one, he says, he'd get a tribal pattern tattoo on a half-sleeve, from shoulder to elbow.) Forward Grant Hill didn't want any regrets down the line. "Ten, 15 years from now, I don't want to look back and go, 'What was I thinking?'" Hill says.
Reserve center-forward Robin Lopez says, "I don't have anything against it. It's a unique way for people to express themselves. Being an artist myself, I can appreciate that." (Lopez says he draws in pastels.) Reserve Alando Tucker comments, "I don't have a single tattoo. Only thugs have tattoos." (After growing up amid crime and gang violence in Illinois, Tucker made a pact with his older brother Antonio to never smoke, drink, or get tattooed).
While Shaq ran every one of his tattoos past his parents, the tattoo-less Suns cited parental disapproval as the most common reason for not getting inked. Reserve forward Jared Dudley says his mom forbade him from getting a tat, and back-up guard Goran Dragic laughs at the idea: "My father would kill me."
Coach Porter comes across as a tough guy but says the same thing about why he's sans ink: "My dad's 82 years old, and if I got a tattoo, he'd still kill me."
Some tattoo artists are almost as famous as the people they tattoo.
Amar'e Stoudemire had all his work done by Los Angeles artist Mark Machado, a.k.a. Mister Cartoon. Machado started his career as a graffiti artist in L.A., then learned from a friend how to tattoo. His first celebrity clients were members of the hip-hop group Cypress Hill, but it wasn't until he tattooed Eminem that his business really exploded. Machado's other clients now include Justin Timberlake, Travis Barker from Blink-182, Method Man, and Beyoncé Knowles. Stoudemire says he's "pretty much done" with tattoos, but if he were to get another one, it would come from Mister Cartoon.
All of Matt Barnes' tats were created by high school friend Ryan Hill, now with American Graffiti studio in Sacramento, where Barnes grew up. Barnes brought Hill more NBA customers — he's also done work on Golden State Warriors point guard Monta Ellis, Atlanta Hawks point guard Mike Bibby, and Golden State Warriors small forward Stephen Jackson. Hill says he lets Barnes pay for his tattoos in NBA gear most of the time. "I charge money from every one of my other customers, so when it comes to Matt, I'd rather get a jersey or some game shorts," Hill says. "There's nothing better than a pair of [L.A. Clippers center] Chris Kaman's smoothies [shorts] after a hard day's work."
