Comments on: Un-tattooed Olympians?

Question: Un-tattooed Olympians?

chookibing — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:53:40 -0800

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.

By: cabingirl

cabingirl — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:12:59 -0800

I saw a few tattoos on male swimmers which appeared to be fully in view, although they were both olympic-ring related.

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:13:31 -0800

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.

By: crickets

crickets — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:14:48 -0800

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.

By: theichibun

theichibun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:17:21 -0800

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.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:35:54 -0800

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...

By: minus zero

minus zero — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:44:14 -0800

Anecdotally (I can't find anything online to back myself up) I've heard that tattoos often don't show up well on-screen.

By: EastCoastBias

EastCoastBias — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:02:25 -0800

Some members of the US Men's volleyball team have tats that are uncovered.

By: Third

Third — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:03:08 -0800

In the women's beach volleyball semi-final that just aired, I could see both May-Treanor's and Walsh's tattoos very clearly.

By: puritycontrol

puritycontrol — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:04:05 -0800

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.

By: Ookseer

Ookseer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:11:17 -0800

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.

By: robofunk

robofunk — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:56:45 -0800

It may be possible some of the tattoos are victims of the logo police.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:03:12 -0800

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.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:02:31 -0800

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.

By: twine42

twine42 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:30:56 -0800

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?

By: Who_Am_I

Who_Am_I — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:58:49 -0800

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.

By: CwgrlUp

CwgrlUp — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:40:48 -0800

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.

By: coppermoss

coppermoss — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:20:19 -0800

I'm pretty sure Mist May's tattoos are being blurred, though if it's by the network or by makeup, I cannot tell.