Arizona's nationally known for its general apathy toward its professional sports teams, but that doesn't mean the super-fans don't exist here.
Specifically, we're talking about the folks who are such hardcore fans that they get truly awful tattoos permanently stamped to their bodies to show their pride for their teams. We've tracked down seven of the worst sports tattoos we've seen around here, and perhaps not surprisingly, they're all from criminal mugshots. Check 'em out:
7.) Wait, what?
This ain't New York, dude.
6.) Go Devils
The Arizona State University logo, sadly enough, is probably the best tattoo on this fella's face. We assume the ASU logo is for football, or some other sport, because this guy doesn't really look too interested in academics.
5.) World Series memorabilia?
Not only does this look like the result of a five-minute tattoo session, but this also isn't the Diamondbacks logo anymore.
4.) More Diamondbacks
It's hard to fault this guy too much for loving Phoenix, as he has the up-to-date Diamondbacks logo, and his area code, just in case.
3.) Half-assed Diamondbacks
This technically isn't a sports tattoo. Although this is the Diamondbacks font, this guy was only invested in the state as a whole.
2.) Big Red!
Wow, it looks so professional.
1.) The non-existent Suns and Coyotes tattoos
Even worse than the poor tattoo shrines to the local teams is the lack of tattoos devoted to the Suns and Coyotes. Check out Google's image search -- you'll have a hard time finding a tattoo for either one. We've seen Suns tattoos, usually unspectacular and hidden under shirts, but never a Coyotes tattoo (although we wouldn't be surprised if Coyotes fourth-liner Paul Bissonnette has a Yotes tramp-stamp). This might be worse than all the crappy face tattoos for the other teams.
Thankfully, we looked, and didn't find, any Arizona Rattlers tattoos.
If we've missed any awful tattoos, or you've located the mythical Suns and/or Coyotes tattoos, let us know.
Update, September 5: We found a Suns tattoo, and it sucks:
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.