Tat Is Cool: The 20 Coolest Tattoos in Sports

Let's face it: In the world of sports today, finding an athlete with no tattoos is about as easy as finding a sports fan who can name three players in the WNBA.

Getting inked up has become almost mandatory for professional athletes who want to make any sort of splash with the media.

As the number of inked athletes grows, so does the argument: Who has the coolest tattoos in sports?

Here are the 20 coolest tattoos in all of sports. Enjoy!

20. Brandon Jennings

If anybody in the league deserves to rock the "Young Money" tattoo, it's Brandon Jennings.

Jennings is one of the NBA's rising stars and could finally bring the Milwaukee Bucks back to NBA relevance.

I just can't imagine how "Young Money" will be received when he's in a nursing home eating apple sauce, but that day is still far, far away.

19. David Beckham

David Beckham wore the number seven for both England and Manchester United.

When Beckham decided to tattoo his number onto his right forearm, he got creative.

Beckahm had the number seven tattooed in Roman numerals.

Now that's cool.

18. Rasheed Wallace

'Sheed rocks one fine piece of ink on his right shoulder, and nobody can deny that.

One of the NBA's most recognized tattoos.

17. Kenyon Martin

There were a whole lot of tattoos to choose from on Kenyon Martin's body, but in my opinion the coolest tattoo that K-Mart rocks is the lips on his neck.

Where do you come up with something like that?

My favorite part of this tattoo: The lips are an exact replica of his girlfriend's.

16. Stephen Jackson

In a league that is so strongly against guns, it takes a special kind of idiot to tattoo one on his stomach.

However, you'd be lying if you said that you thought this tattoo wasn't cool.

For those of you that can't see exactly what's going on in this tattoo, let me help you out:

The tat features two hands clasped together in what would be prayer, however instead of being clasped together, they are clasped to a gun.

Basically, Stephen Jackson is trying to say, "support Christianity... or else!"

15. LeBron James

LeBron James has been referred to as "The Chosen One" for quite some time now.

So it's only fitting that he would have it tattooed onto his back.

This tattoo is well-crafted, fitting, and it belongs to the single most talked about athlete in the universe.

What more could you ask for?

14. Brad Miller

Brad Miller has Scrappy Doo tattooed on his arm! Brad Miller has Scrappy Doo tattooed on his arm! Brad Miller has Scrappy Doo tattooed on his arm!

If that's not good enough for you then you have no soul.

13. Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal goes by more nicknames than any other player in sports history.

Shaq, Diesel, Superman, The Big Aristotle, and many more.

Being the showman that he is, O'Neal has embraced these nicknames, as proven in this picture.

That's some beautiful ink that Shaq has embedded in his left arm.

12. Amar'e Stoudemire

Yes, you read that correctly.

Amar'e Stoudemire has decided that he is "Black Jesus."

I wonder if Jesus couldn't play defense if his life depended on it either.

11. Chris Anderson

I was very tempted to put Anderson on here for the skeleton wearing a multi-colored crown that rests on his left arm, but in the end how can you pick against the classic Chris Anderson wings?

Chris Anderson has acquired the nickname "Birdman" for flapping his arms like wings after every shot he swats back and every time he rips the core of the net.

The catch: Anderson has wings tattooed onto his arms.

10. Carmelo Anthony

Warner Brothers or West Baltimore? You decide.

9. Jason Williams

Whether you interpret Williams' knuckles as "WHITE" "BOY" or "WHIT" "EBOY" (Which I really think he was going for) we can all agree on one thing: Jason Williams is a knucklehead.

8. Justin Miller

Justin Miller is the only athlete I can think of that is more well-known for his tattoos than for his actual play on the field.

He has floated around from team to team, having far from a noteworthy career.

However, his career has had an interesting defining moment.

Miller's arms were tattooed up so much that Major League Baseball forced him to wear sleeves at all times because his tattoos were distracting the hitters too much.

It's no wonder that he hasn't been able to ink a large contract yet in his career.

7. Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson said it himself, "We all do dumb s**t when we're f***ed up."

No quote could better describe this awesome, but certainly misplaced tattoo.

6. Stephon Marbury

If you liked Mike Tyson's tattoo from the last slide, then you'll love this one.

I don't know whether Marbury's incentive for getting this tattoo was for advertising purposes, because he thought it would look cool, or because he was just really drunk. But whatever it is, that's one intriguing piece of ink.

The ironic part of this tattoo is that for the same price that Marbury got this done for, you could have bought 10 pairs of Starbury sneakers and still had enough money left over for a Starbury shirt.

5. Jeremy Shockey

What an awesome and patriotic tattoo.

I'm surprised we don't see more of these types of tattoos, and I'm disappointed too.

4. Scott Spiezio

Tattoos can stand for a lot of things. Love is one of those things.

As a sign of love, millions of men have decided to tattoo their significant others name onto their body.

However, Scott Spiezio thought that was too easy. As a sign of love Spiezio didn't tattoo his wife's name onto his arm, instead he tattooed a picture of his wife.

I repeat, Scott Spiezio tattooed a PICTURE of his wife onto his arm!

That's commitment.

3. Marquis Daniels

Pop quiz: You're lost in Florida and have no map, no money, and you've forgotten how to speak English.

Out of nowhere, you spot former Indiana Pacers guard Marquis Daniels.

What do you do?

If your answer was take off his shirt and check his back for directions, then give yourself a pat on the back because you're right on.

That's right, Marquis Daniels has a detailed map of his home state Florida tattooed right onto his back.

How awesome is that?

2. Shawne Merriman

Shawne Merriman earned the nickname "Lights Out" after knocking out four other football players while at high school in Maryland.

The nickname stuck with him and he had this very elaborate tattoo (pictured) inked on his left arm.

However, what really makes this tattoo special is the way that Merriman uses it. After making a sack, Shawne performs what he calls "The Lights Out Dance" as he proceeds to pretend to flip the light-switch on his tattoo up and down.

Here's a video of the dance:

1. DeShawn Stevenson

This is the best tattoo in sports, and it's not even debatable.

Until somebody decides to go double or nothing and tattoo a $10 bill on their neck, DeShawn Stevenson is the winner here by default.