Un-tattooed Olympians?

August 18, 2008 5:53 PM

Are competitors in the Beijing Olympics required to cover up or mute their tattoos? Or is my mind playing tricks on me.

Every person that I've seen with a tattoo looks like its been at least partially covered with makeup. Mostly I've seen this in the track and weightlifting events.

posted by chookibing to sports, hobbies, & recreation (17 comments total)

I saw a few tattoos on male swimmers which appeared to be fully in view, although they were both olympic-ring related.
posted by cabingirl at 6:12 PM on August 18, 2008

The US' Steeplechase entrant had a large tattoo on his right shoulder. I have no idea what the subject matter consists of. One of the American Swimmers has the Olympic rings on his shoulder blade.
posted by mmascolino at 6:13 PM on August 18, 2008

I've noticed quite a few big tattoos on some of the runners, but they've all been on black athletes, and harder to spot, which probably doesn't discredit your theory.
posted by crickets at 6:14 PM on August 18, 2008

I'm not sure about the rules sport by sport or if there's even a difference, but as an overall 100% rules athletes aren't required to cover up tattoos. Just look at the men's basketball, they're all over the place.

Also keep in mind that there's this new (at least to me) bandage/wrap type thing that's sort of like a brace. Kerri Walsh has a black one, I've seen other colors as well.

Here's a picture on Flickr that shows the brace I'm talking about and a tattoo on Misty May.
posted by theichibun at 6:17 PM on August 18, 2008

This gallery: Badges of honour: the tattoos of Olympians might be of interest to you....

Though this unlikely article suggests the tattoos themselves are the problem...
posted by Rumple at 6:35 PM on August 18, 2008

Anecdotally (I can't find anything online to back myself up) I've heard that tattoos often don't show up well on-screen.
posted by minus zero at 6:44 PM on August 18, 2008

Some members of the US Men's volleyball team have tats that are uncovered.
posted by EastCoastBias at 7:02 PM on August 18, 2008

In the women's beach volleyball semi-final that just aired, I could see both May-Treanor's and Walsh's tattoos very clearly.
posted by Third at 7:03 PM on August 18, 2008

Jared Connaughton of Canada has a giant tattoo on his right arm. It was pretty hard to miss during the men's 200M round 2 race that was televised a couple of hours ago. Here is a pic of the tattoo from a different race. As much as runners sweat, I imagine it would be difficult to keep makeup on a tattoo.
posted by puritycontrol at 7:04 PM on August 18, 2008

Lots of sun and/or pool chlorine are bad for tattoos and will fade them pretty quickly. I think virtually all Olympic athletes meet one or both of those conditions.
posted by Ookseer at 7:11 PM on August 18, 2008

It may be possible some of the tattoos are victims of the logo police.
posted by robofunk at 7:56 PM on August 18, 2008

It's a Canadian swim tradition to have a maple leaf and/or olympic rings tattooed over the heart, this dates back to before tattoos were as common as skin, so clearly even back in the day there wasn't a problem with it at an official level.
posted by Rumple at 8:03 PM on August 18, 2008

More generally, it's absolutely a Canadian tradition to get rings inked after competing in your first Olympics. The gymnastics commentator was saying that as soon as they're back in Calgary, they're taking (my new boyfriend) Nathan Gafuik to get inked.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 11:02 PM on August 18, 2008

I haven't watched the olympics, so this is a stab in the dark, but is it possible this is another manifestation of the trademark obliteration that has been going on?

I can imagine that if (for example) an athlete has a Pespi logo on his shoulder the IOC may have forced him to cover it up to protect the Coke sponsorship.

Admittedly, having a Pespi logo on your shoulder is unlikely, but is it that unlikely someone would have a Harley Davidson logo on them?
posted by twine42 at 4:30 AM on August 19, 2008

I don't think it's an issue, I definitely saw one of the American swimmers had a tattoo in plain view (on his shoulderblade), but it wasn't the multi-colored Olympic Rings one. I was actually curious about that one (the rings on the swimmer) in particular, because it looked kind of like a temporary, and I could swear I saw an identical one on Michael Phelps' bicep which disappeared a few days later.

Oh and it just occurred to me that the American men's basketball team is absolutely covered in tattoos.
posted by Who_Am_I at 7:58 AM on August 19, 2008

I remember watching the Olympics one evening and seeing an athlete with a strange blue sticker-looking thing on her shoulder. The first thing I thought was to cover up a tat, but as others have pointed out, that doesn't seem to be the case. You're not seeing things though.
posted by CwgrlUp at 2:40 PM on August 19, 2008

I'm pretty sure Mist May's tattoos are being blurred, though if it's by the network or by makeup, I cannot tell.
posted by coppermoss at 3:20 PM on August 19, 2008