Our Choice: Top Sporting Tattoos Globally

Sport brings people together and people love their teams with a passion.  We selected some top sporting tattoos from across the glove to share with you.  

Not only the American flavor of football either – across the Atlantic in the European soccer leagues we’re at the peak of the season with all to play for in the 2016 European Cup. It’s good times. Sport brings people together and people love their teams with a passion all over the world. It got us thinking, what are the coolest, funkiest, flashiest sports tattoos out there? Who gets them? Following your team is a job for life, so there’s no worries in having to change your tattoo here – at least not unless you’re a fairweather fan, that is – so who sports the top sporting tattoos in Tattoos Beautiful Land? Let’s find out…

Roll Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide could perhaps be the home of the most fanatic crazed fans in college football. I’m only saying that because we know a Crimson Tide fan and he’s a crazed fanatic. Wassup Nick, if you’re watching. Anyway, this team is a perfect place to start my search for the coolest craziest sports tattoos, and looky here, what is this? Straight off the bat a cool, badass tattoo that shows that this guy’s heart is truly crimson. Roooollll Tide!

The Steelers and their Terrible Towel

We guess you gotta be from Pittsburgh to really like this, but we’re nothing if not respectful of fine sporting traditions, and the Terrible Towel is a great one for Steelers fans. Every time a new Steelers fan is born, custom decrees that he or she should be wrapped in a Terrible Towel. It’s a thing there. It just is. You don’t got a Terrible Towel you ain’t a fan. This dude here has no worries about forgetting his towel or people thinking he’s not a fan. He’s got it right there on his arm. He bleeds the Steelers. And that’s why he’s on this list.

The Seahawks

This one’s nice. A little artistic touch. Something a little more original and a little more genteel. If it wasn’t for the colors and that familiar Seahawks seahawk head right there, this could be a phoenix rising from the ashes. Much like their season this year after losing to the Patriots in last years Superbowl.

Koby

This dude loves ball in general or the Lakers in particular. Or maybe he just loves Koby Bryant. Who doesn’t? This is a work of art, this tattoo is. I hope this guy lives in LA where it’s warm enough a lot of the time to wear shorts and show this baby off. Is that Jack Nicholson there in the crowd?  Want more top sporting tattoos?  Keep reading…..

Jordan

And sticking with the basketball theme, we can’t move on from it without mentioning His Airness, Michael Jordan. What better tribute to the man than to have your entire back inked up with various Jordan and Chicago Bulls memorabilia. The most famous use of the number “23” in the world, methinks. A dedicated fan.

Raiders

What do you do when your team keeps moving within the state? LA to Oakland and maybe back to LA again? Heck you just cover all your bases with tat of your team within a map of California. Hope for this guy’s sake they don’t move to San Antonio, Texas!

Horse Racing

It doesn’t have to be all about team sports and rooting for your team, you know? Heck it’s MOSTLY about that, but not exclusively. Other sports are also represented upon the flesh of fans near and far. Take horse racing. The sport of kings, they call it. Check out this awesome tribute right here on this arm. I hope this tattoo was cos he’d won and not a penalty for losing…

Tackling Prohibited

This is the ultimate soccer players tattoo. Basically says don’t come in hard here and break my goddamn leg if you please opposition player fine sir… Although maybe not the most aesthetically tattoo out there in the sporting tattoos world, it displays a fine sense of humor and for that we like it a lot.

Baseball

This one isn’t about any team or tribal sporting loyalty – it’s just about the pure beauty of sport as an activity. It’s about a father handing down a legacy to his son. It’s about fair play and honor and all that old fashioned stuff. It’s about the beauty of the game in and of itself. It sums up baseball to a tee and is well worth a place in this hallowed list because of that.

Chess

Is chess a game or a sport? That’s the never-ending conundrum isn’t it? For the sake of this article we’ll call it a sport. After all, it does world championships and all that, the same as any other sport. That’s good enough for us. So these matching his ‘n’ hers king and queen tats are totally appropriate for this page. Check mate!

Boston Strong

There’s probably no other city in the world with as much sporting heritage as Boston (we say as we duck from the pile of garbage and rotten fruit being thrown at him from New Yorkers, Mancunians, and anyone else out there). Bostonians love their teams. The Patriots, the Red Sox, the Bruins, and the Celtics are all represented here. Although in fairness, the Patriots are a New England team rather than a strictly Boston one, the cheating so and sos. Anyway, this guy bleeds Boston. What other city can fit so many teams into one tattoo?

Volleyball

This girl takes her sport seriously. We love it when people celebrate their sport rather than their team. Both are noble causes, but celebrating the essence of the game itself somehow seems very pure to us. This is a great volleyball design that kind of looks like a tribal tattoo as well. In fact, if you didn’t know that it was a volleyball, you’d think it was a tribal tat we’ sure. A great, original idea here.

Anything is Possible

This is only for the hardcore. Those magnificent men and women made of steel who spend their weekends swimming and biking and running for ridiculous distances that would make a regular guy like me drop his six pack of beer in utter exhaustion and puke my guts out with the effort of picking them back up again. The triathlon logo is pretty cool in its own right, and makes a great tattoo. Anyone who you see who has this tattoo in any way, shape or form has totally earned it. Respect is due.

Loving the Blackhawks

Really cool idea to get a close up of the feather headdress from the Chicago Blackhawks team logo and display them through the shape of a heart. Again, it’s one of those “if you know you know” ones. If you didn’t know, you’d just see a lovely colored heart to begin with, and if you did know, you’d see a hard core (heart core?) Blackhawks fan. The genius lies in the subtlety. Is this one of your top sporting tattoos?

Canada

You can tell this guy’s Canadian by how pasty-white he is. He doesn’t need a tattoo to show his nationality! 😉 Well…. we suppose he could be English…. Anyway we digress. Canada could be one of the few countries where its sports represent the essence of the country. Canada = Hockey. Hockey = Canada. See? It just IS. Anyway this tattoo represents the heart and soul of Canada which automatically represents the heart and soul of hockey. Simple, eh? Eh?

Denver Broncos

This Broncos fan has a great tattoo. The famous horse, I mean bronco, looks airbrushed onto him here. Creates a really cool, contemporary image here. Man’s showing his pride for his team plus an appreciation of good modern art. The whole package here ladies – the whole package.

Wise Words

Sometimes you don’t need a logo or an image. Sometimes you don’t need the testosterone of gladiators in action or the thrill of athletic prime. Sometimes all you need are words to sum up your sport. Just words, that’s all. Sometimes those words sum up your love of your sport more than anything else ever can. Like this girl right here.

More top sporting tattoos

Dreaming of Greatness…

This one is special because it’s inked onto one of the appendages of one Neymar de Silva Santos Junior – just Neymar to pretty much everyone in the world. Naymar is not just a fan. Neymar is one of the top football – soccer – players on the planet, plying his trade at FC Barcelona. This tattoo though represents the hopes and dreams that Neymar had as a small child growing up in the favelas of Sao Paulo, Brazil. There he is – ball under his arn staring at his neighborhood and dreaming of a house of his own. Dreaming of playing football. Dreaming of winning the Champions League. He’s grown up and done all three. This tattoo is about dreaming big, about making it. It’s perfect.

Liverpool Full Sleeve

On a springtime afternoon, April 15th, 1989, two football (soccer) teams met up at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, England, for an FA Cup semi final. Those teams were Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest. By the end of that afternoon ninety-six Liverpool fans were dead, crushed by their own fellow fans surging into the stadium due to a collapse of police control and ground security on the day. It was a dark for sport in general, and for Liverpool in particular. This full sleeve commemorates that dreadful day and also serves as a remarkable backdrop for a mans love for his team and for his fellow fans.

Tennis

And so to end this sporting journey we thought it would be good to go back to something non tribal. Back to something that celebrates the feeling of playing and competing in the activity you love. In this instance it’s tennis – and this fine drawing in a charcoal style is an awesome piece of work in and of itself – but you know what? It could be any sport. Sports knock down barriers and for that reason a good sports tattoo will always be noticed and will always cause a discussion.

Did you like our selection of top sporting tattoos?  Which would you choose?