Tattoos on gymnasts more frequent than you think...after all gymnasts can ignore a lot of pain...and you know tattoos, ink..needle...lol It's kind of funny for gymnasts competing where you can't wear colored nail polish which is conservative, and then get a tattoe, which is typically considered not conservative.
Terin Humphrey - After the 2004 lympics she got the Olympic rings tattoed just below her right shoulder blade. Mohini Bhardwaj - Olympic rings tattoed on her left wrist. It's a Nittany Lion tradition for the Penn State University men's team to get tattoos after winning the national championship, like in 2007:
[INDENT][quote]
When most teams win national championships, they slip on rings, raise trophies and let out a season’s worth of tension partying. The Penn State men’s gymnastics team celebrated a bit differently.
They got tattoos.
The players adopted the idea from Penn State teams that had won national championships in 2000 and 2004.
“Before I came to Penn State, I saw the guys from 2004 who had them and I always told my family and friends from home, ‘I want a tattoo and a ring,’ ” junior
Josh Borromeo said. “That was the main reason that I came here.”
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Like another awards ceremony:
[quote]
The team turned its trip to get tattoos into a ceremony, as it scheduled a day to decorate itself. A week after it won the national championship, the team reserved a day at Tattoo Mark's Studio 2 behind McClanahan's on College Avenue.
The team had gone to that particular tattoo parlor in previous years to mark its national championships.
"It was really awesome when they came before because they were out front doing back-flips and front-flips," said Tim Sellers, the artist who tattooed the players.
While there were no back-alley-flips this time around, the team found ways to alleviate the nerves of getting a tattoo.
"We all went together, we watched each other, we made fun of each other while we were getting them," Klurman said.
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Optional, of course, some choose not to, including the coach:
[quote]
Some players, however, found other ways to bond and other ways to perpetuate their victory.
Sophomore Matt Greenfield and junior Casey Sandy declined to get the tattoo.
.
.
The team's coach, Randy Jepson, supports his players' decisions to get a tattoo or to leave their bodies as they are.
[/quote]
The Collegian
(via The Gymblog)
[/INDENT]Blaine Wilson - not really surprising with his "tough guy" image, has a tatoo OSU - Ohio State University - on his ankle which he wrapped for competitions to cover . He chewed gum and competed (not good!), and also had a tongue ring when competing and stuck out his tongue in the cameras lol.
...But not here, from 8/2000:
[quote]
There is a glint from the small silver stud on Blaine Wilson's pierced tongue, and a request to have him display his latest accessory.
But as a camera creeps in on America's five-time national champion, the compact gymnast with the defined muscle of a toy soldier refuses to play the part as the tattooed rebel of his sport.
''I'm not sticking my tongue out on TV,'' Wilson said with a smile. ''And when I raise my hand to the judge, I'm not sticking my tongue out at them, either.''
He knows what the judges will want to see when the Olympic trials begin on Thursday at the Fleet Center with the men's preliminary all-around competition. As a part of his routines, he has a certain image he wants to stick, as well.
''You have to come in cleanshaven, and you have to be the good old American boy when you walk out there,'' Wilson said today following a training session. ''So that's the image the judges are looking for.''
He has an image for every occasion. He is heavy-metal and milk-and-cookies, all rolled into one. He has been known to hunker down beneath his headphones and launch into a deep and detached focus on the way to a meet, but he has also been moved to tears on the occasions when one of his teammates, John Roethlisberger, pours out his patriotic soul before a competition.
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"OLYMPICS; Wilson a Tattooed, Pierced, All-American Guy"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E4D9173EF934A2575BC0A9669C8B63
[quote]
''I think he is the least understood of all gymnasts,'' said Peter Kormann, the men's Olympic team coach. ''He's very complicated, but he's the ultimate team player.
''His image sometimes is that I'm this tough, competitive guy with tattoos and all this stuff. But I have to laugh. He's not even close to that. He's the nicest guy and the best team player.''
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The other side:
[quote]
So much so that he has been known to delay his own routine to watch his teammates. In 1996, Kormann had to tell the judges that Wilson was tired from his previous event and had to take a breather before performing on the rings. Truthfully, Wilson was a bundle of nerves watching one of his teammates, Kip Simons, pull off his routine on the other side of the gym. He needed Kormann to buy him time so he could focus his attention -- and a little mental telepathy -- on Simons. As soon as Simons ended his performance, a relaxed Wilson scored a 9.9 on the rings.
''He didn't have a thought about the rings,'' Kormann said. ''He was nervous for his teammates. That's the real Blaine.''
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It's the whole book and cover thing. And being yourself.
