Trail Blazers tattoos reveal players' values

Wesley Matthews: "It's expressive," Wesley Matthews said of getting tattoos. "If done right, I think they can be tasteful. Until I got these, if I wore a shirt, you would never know I had one. But these, they're not gaudy and they mean something. They're not an expression of ignorance."

 

Will Barton: "I like them all -- no regrets," said Will Barton, who plans to get more this summer. What will he get? "I don't know. I have a tattoo artist, he's real good. And most of the time I go in there, unless I have something in mind -- like my mom -- I give him some ideas and I just let him freestyle with it."

 

LaMarcus Aldridge: "My praying hands, the rosary with the clouds is my favorite," Aldridge said. "I wanted to get tattoos to express myself. I think it's a way of getting stuff on your body that you believe in."

 

JJ Hickson: "I was definitely going through things in life and I wanted to remember those moments," JJ Hickson said of his tattoos. "Others were just spur-of-the-moments. That's just how I was feeling at the time." There have been mistakes. "Right before college, I got this whole arm blasted and I was like, 'Oops,'" he said of his left arm. "I regret this whole arm. But this (right) arm definitely has a lot more meaning."

 

Nolan Smith: "I got this when I was 16; it was my first tat," said Nolan Smith, who has 10 tattoos. "It's the only one I have that's visible, the only one I'm going to keep visible. And it's my dad, the reason I play basketball, the reason that I love the game. He's my idol, my role model and I always look down at him."

 

Damian Lillard: "When I first started getting them, everybody was getting them, so it was cool," Damian Lillard said. "I'm just happy that they all have some type of meaning to me. It's just stuff that I take interest in, stuff that I value: My mom, my sister, basketball ... my friends, my brother, scripture. Everything is something that I felt was worthy of being on my body."

 

Jared Jeffries: Jared Jeffries' pride and joy fills his back and has taken eight years and 21 hours of work to complete. Except it's not compete yet. He had work done earlier this month and will continue to accentuate the striking display of art for years to come. "I think it's just an expression," Jeffries said. "I think it's art. Just an expression in what you believe in. So most of mine have some kind of religious theme. Like Bible verses, a guardian angel on my wrist. And then I have Jesus on my back. That's my favorite."

 

http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-...rs_tattoos_reveal_p.html#incart_river_default

 

those don't look like Wesleys arms, I wonder what filter they used to make the players look like ghosts/very pale.

 

Oops, they adjusted the contrast to make it easier to see. I guess I should have posted a "Graphic" warning.

 

for a second, I thought the Blazers were doing white-face! I was almost offended.