Tat’ll Do For Footballers In Search Of Style

Style is something we all aspire to have, whether it is of the time or a style all of your own creation and footballers are no exception to this.

In the past players have expressed their flamboyance with the aid of an outrageous hairstyle or perhaps with the help of some fetching facial hair.

This though is seemingly not enough for today’s super-rich style conscious modern footballers as all tend to sport rather straight laced and middle-of-the-road haircuts. Instead, the must have fashion accessory for footballers is the tattoo and lots of them.

A simple moustache, afro, mullet or ponytail were common place once in the game when the less style conscious player who had the look of a regular working class Joe, such as Glenn Cockerill, could be spotted regularly on a Saturday afternoon plying their trade in an uncompromisingly unfashionable hairstyle.

In today’s game though players on the whole seem unwilling to break with the norm and are quite content with a short back and sides.

Hungry though to show their individuality and set themselves apart from the other big egos in the dressing room, tattoos and plenty of them have become the stamp of uniqueness in football.

Somewhat lacking in imagination though the designs tend to have a similar feel to them, with many players opting for a tribal bands wrapped around their forearms. This is the male equivalent of a tramp stamp that can be found on the lower back of many a classy girl found hugging the pavement on a Friday night.

There are though some players who are unwilling to do things by halves and commit their attentions to separating themselves from the throng of keen-to-impress footballers lacking in any imagination.

The obvious and most famous player noted for his tattoos is David Beckham who has adorned one arm in ink, has a large crucifix on his back and has his wife’s name written in Hindi on his arm, as he thought it would be ‘tacky’ written in English.

For me though he has comfortably been surpassed by Manchester City’s combative midfielder Stephen Ireland, whose commitment to making an impression with a tattoo really took me by surprise the first time I saw it.

Clearly not content with a decorative set of wings, Ireland seemingly wanted realistically life-size wings inked onto his back that could carry him skywards if they were real. Impressive as they are though I feel that if really wants to make a statement of style he should invest in a hair loss treatment that is usually advertised on the backs of newspapers to really give his wings some life.

By no means though is Ireland alone in his pursuit of tattooed style as he also joined by Marseilles Djibril Cisse, who must also be given credit as one of the few players who attempts to style his hair differently from the norm, with varied success.

Steering clear of tattooing just the popular arm and back Djibril has decided that his style would benefit from a massive tribal tattoo down the upper half of his right leg.

Annoyingly for him though his shorts conceal his attempt at individuality so he decided the best way to display this was to pose in a black and white photo in his birthday suit in an image that would fit nicely alongside Madonna’s nude photo collection from the early 1990s.

For me though the style winner is none of these. In fact my winner in the style stakes has no where near the same level of ink on his body as his competitors, if at all.

He is of course the one and only David James.

In my eyes he can be forgiven for dropping crosses because of an addiction to the videogame Tekken as he has throughout his career been brave and bold enough to stride out in front of 40,000+ people every weekend with some of the most ridiculous haircuts I’ve ever seen.

For sheer bravery Mr James, you are my style hero.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Friday September 25, 2009.
Tags: footballers tattoos, David James