When Dwyane Wade was growing up in Chicago, his parents had all sorts of rules. No earrings, no hats, no tattoos.
So when Wade headed to Marquette as a freshman in fall 2001, it was time to rebel. He was a man, and he was going to show it.
“I got my earring, and I was like, ‘A tattoo is next,’ " Wade said. “I walked into a tattoo parlor, but I walked right out. I understood I was doing it just to say I was grown up. But it wasn’t me. So I walked out, and I’ve never been back."
More than a decade later, Wade is starring for the Miami Heat and still isn’t a graduate of Tattoo U. And that puts the guard in an NBA minority.
Since the 1990s, tattoos have been as prevalent in the league as timeouts and turnovers. The 2003 book In the Paint: Tattoos of the NBA and the Stories Behind Them stated that more than 70 percent of NBA players are inked. And, looking at today’s teams, that seems to remain an accurate figure.
Eleven of Miami’s 15 players are said to have tattoos. That’s 73 percent.
Of course, if forward Shane Battier is playing a prank, some might think the percentage has gone up.
“I come in every now and then with a fake tattoo just to see the reactions," said Battier, who said he’s “never had the urge" to get a real tattoo. “The really cheap ones. Like a rose. I get some chuckles …. (The tattoos he selects) are over the top. It’s a way to make fun of my clean-cut-ness."
Other Heat players who aren’t inked are center Joel Anthony and rookie point guard Norris Cole. When Cole filled in for a game last week for injured Mario Chalmers, he joined Wade and Anthony to give Miami a rare NBA lineup in which the majority was tattoo-free.
“They’re good and wholesome," Heat forward Chris Bosh, who has a heavily tattooed back, said of his ink-free teammates. “I wish I could say that about myself."
Like Wade, Cole and Anthony said they had parents who laid down the law when they were kids. And that carried over to when they became adults.
“She definitely wasn’t having that in her house," Anthony, who is from Montreal, said about his mother, Erene, frowning upon tattoos.
There must be something about Canadians. Other NBA players from up north who don’t have tattoos include Phoenix guard Steve Nash and Toronto center Jamaal Magloire.
Then again, Magloire used to have one on his left bicep that read “Mister Magloire." He had it removed a few years ago.
“I have a son growing up, and I want to lead by example," Magloire said.
Magloire is 6-foot-11, 265 pounds and nicknamed “The Big Cat." So it’s understandable he’s never heard any razzing about anything related to a tattoo.
As for Cleveland guard Ramon Sessions, he’s 6-3, 190 pounds. He gets it plenty from teammates about how he needs to add some body art.
“I hear it all the time, ‘You got to get a tattoo,’ " Sessions said. “And just from the general public too. But it’s something I stay away from. I don’t know if it’s something that I can look at for the rest of my life that long. I always thought of it like that. I thought when I get to 50, do I want to look at a tattoo?"
Sessions, 25, is halfway there. He said he’s never come close to getting a tattoo.
As for teammate Samardo Samuels, 23, he thought seriously about getting one when he was 12. That’s right, 12.
“My brother got a bunch of them," Samuels, who grew up in Jamaica before moving to New Jersey for ninth grade, said of Leon, who is five years older. “He got the Jamaican flag. He got stuff on his knuckles. So I said, ‘Why can’t I get one?’ My mom said I could. When you grow up in Jamaica, you’re forced to grow up a lot quicker.
“But then I was like, ‘What am I going to get?’ I didn’t see the point of it …. They say that once you get one, you get a bunch of them. That train isn’t going to stop."
The forward managed to avoid the needle through two years of college ball at Louisville. This despite the fact Samuels calls the Cardinals “an inked-up team," with nearly every player having one.
As for Toronto forward Linas Kleiza, he was able to make it through a 2005-09 stint with Denver, then perhaps the most-tattooed team in NBA history, without getting one. His Nuggets teammates included human billboard Chris Andersen as well as Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith.
“Definitely, I like tattoos, but not on myself," Kleiza said. “On white guys, they stand out too much. On black players, they look good."
Forward Andrea Bargnani, a teammate of Kleiza, also doesn’t have a tattoo. Considering Bargnani averaged 21.4 points last season and is at 23.5 this season, he’s rapidly emerging as a candidate for an All-NBA no-tattoo team.
Other notable players in the league who have avoided them include Dallas forwards Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter, Orlando center Dwight Howard, Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul and Houston guard Kevin Martin.
Martin has a pretty good reason. He has said he’s “been scared of needles since I was a little kid."
As for Wade, he initially was just scared of his parents.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter@christomasson
