Mickey Mantle Tattoos February 25, 2012 11:16 AMSubscribe
Did Mickey Mantle have tattoos?
In this photo Jason Kottke posted to his blog from Life Magazine it looks like Mickey Mantle had sleeves (tattoos). Is this true or a distortion in the photo?
Referring to his forearm. But in looking at it, I'm almost certain it's blond arm hair. One of those bizarre perception problems, I suppose. posted by blueplasticfish at 11:26 AM on February 25, 2012
In that era, tattoos were unusual and certainly not mainstream. Additionally, it's doubtful that the team's dress code would have permitted it (along with facial hair) unless it was a carryover from military service (the Navy in particular, but not exclusively). posted by tommasz at 11:51 AM on February 25, 2012
No way. Literally the only people that had tattoos back then were sailors and criminals. posted by gnutron at 12:37 PM on February 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
The photo doesn't look like tattoos to me, and echoing what others have said, tattoos, and especially sleeve tattoos, would have been unusual for this era. posted by zippy at 3:04 PM on February 25, 2012
He's just got really hairy arms. posted by loriginedumonde at 3:11 PM on February 25, 2012
If you put this in image-editing software of your choice and do a gamma correction, you will see only hair and flesh on the forearm. Nothing like a tattoo (although it's possible the surgery scars are visible; it's hard to tell).
Here's a rare example of a player from the era sporting a tattoo. As that blog post indicates, any ink would have also shown up in other photographs, but there was a tattoo taboo as late as the 1990s. posted by dhartung at 5:00 PM on February 26, 2012
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posted by holgate at 11:19 AM on February 25, 2012