Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Permanent record – Olympians don’t just have designs on winning medals
RIO DE JANEIRO: For many athletes, the Olympic path is easy to trace: years of training in obscurity; a life-affirming, nerve- wracking competition on the world’s biggest stage; the medal podium for the fastest, strongest, smartest of the bunch; and then, back home, a visit to a tattoo parlour to memorialise the entire affair for eternity.
The iconic Olympic rings are ever-present across Rio de Janeiro, but not just on the flags and signage. For many competing here, they’re on ankles, biceps, hips and shoulders. One 2012 Olympian, American weightlifter Holley Mangold, returned home and actually got the rings tattooed on the side of her head.
The 554-member US team in Rio includes 189 athletes who’ve previously competed in a Summer Games. That means dozens of tattoos will be on display across a variety of events. Wrestler Jordan Burroughs decorated his left biceps with the iconic logo draped in a US flag. Michael Phelps has the rings on his right hip, often vis- ible peeking out of his swimsuit. Fellow swimmer Ryan Lochte put his inside his right biceps. Sprinter Justin Gatlin has the rings just above his right collar bone.
Tattoos can serve as reminders about life’s events, loved ones, lessons, inspirations and accomplishments. For athletes, the Olympics encompasses all of these things. Archer Jake Kaminski, 27, visited a parlour in Florida and tried to articulate his vision.
“I’m not an artist; I’m not a designer,” he said. “All I knew is I obviously wanted the rings and I wanted them to be a part of me.”
The result: on the inside of right arm, an arrow appears to cut through and pull back his skin, revealing the Olympics rings underneath.
Of course, because we’re talking about the Olympics, a multibillion-dollar entity that guards its brand like a lion does a newborn cub, the occasional uproar is inevitable. In May, Josef Craig, a British Paralympic swimmer, was disqualified from a race because his tattoo of the Olympic rings was visible, violating an International Paralympic Committee swimming rule that clearly states: “Body advertisements are not allowed in any way whatsoever (this includes tattoos and symbols).”
The IOC has indicated it has no plans to ban ink of the rings and has even expressed enthusiasm for athletes’ marking their accomplishments in such an enduring way.
The permanency might scare some from ever sitting in the chair, but for many Olympians, that’s the allure.
Most trace the ink lineage back to Chris Jacobs, who won three swimming medals at the 1988 Games. Impressed with a Canadian swimmer who sported ink at the 1984 Olympics, Jacobs returned from Seoul intent on memorialising his own Olympic visit.
“Family and friends see the tattoo as special, unique and something for which we should be proud,” Jacobs said. “The reaction from other Olympians tends to be fairly consistent, most appreciating the idea, with the greatest amount of time spent deciding on the best part of their body to display the work.”
With 365 first-time Olympians on Team USA, tattoo artists back in the States could soon be busy. Most athletes wait until after the competition to turn body into canvas, careful to select the design and artist who can make certain no one confuses their lifelong pursuit with a skin-deep blunder.
Ellison, a 27-year-old archer who’s competing in his third Olympics, felt his tattoo was inevitable, an initiation of sorts. His rings take up the sizeable real estate on his right forearm, visible whenever he raises his bow and pulls back the string. After the 2012 Games, he added the word “London”, shaped into an arrow, and after leaving Rio de Janeiro, the ink will crawl even higher up his arm. – Washington Post