Tattoo Artist Bang Bang Critiques NBA & WNBA Tattoos (LeBron James, Brittney Griner & More)

I love emoji tattoos

and I've done quite a few and I want one.

I really want the [beep], you know?

That's, like, my favorite emoji ever.

What's up GQ? I'm Bang Bang.

I'm a tattoo artist in New York City

and today we'll be reviewing the tattoos of some

of the biggest stars in the NBA and WNBA.

[laid-back hip-hop beat]

So I've been tattooing a long time.

You know, when I first started tattooing,

I would've never imagined I would tattoo LeBron James

or some of the great athletes

that I've gotten to meet and tattoo.

It's a little surreal to be here

and to be able to do my work for them,

who've done so much work.

So some of my clients are obviously LeBron, Rihanna,

Justin Bieber, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez.

I could go on for days.

LeBron's got a bunch of tattoos and he's got a bunch

of really iconic tattoos as well.

I met LeBron five, six years ago through a mutual friend

who's in his close circle and they work on the shop together

and he was vetting me to make sure I'm, you know,

cool to be in the circle.

And so LeBron flew me to his house

when he was in Cleveland, we tattooed in his basement.

I did a portrait of his daughter

when she was about two years old.

Some of the things about LeBron's tattoos

is we can't tell what every one of them are

because some of 'em are older, some of 'em are coverups.

As we talked through all his tattoos,

he really loved his tattoos.

He has something on his chest

that I just remember him explaining

it was terribly painful.

He did pretty good on his low shoulder blade

when I tattooed him.

Little peak in the future, he wants a a lion

on his finger, like mine.

I think my favorite tattoo on LeBron,

other than the one I did of course is Chosen One.

I think there's something really poetic

in embracing the pressure and I think no one in the history

of sports has had the pressure that LeBron James has.

He was the chosen one when he was in eighth grade.

Everybody knew he'd be great

and that's a really hard thing to live up to,

so I love LeBron's Chosen One tattoo most.

Allen Iverson's style was one of a kind and still is.

There was a lot of controversy

surrounding Allen Iverson's tattoos.

And early on in his career, the marketing ads

and even toys that kids would buy,

they didn't have any tattoos, although he did,

and this was a really large point of contention.

Not only did Allen Iverson have lots of tattoos,

but he had his neck tattooed, he had his hands tattooed.

Even still now, it's a touch taboo

but not nearly what it was then.

Allen Iverson was a superstar in the late 90s

and early 2000s when no one had tattoos,

especially NBA players and athletes in general.

Really, he was the most famous, most tattooed person

for a long period of time.

Now we see many NBA players that look like this,

but at the time we didn't.

And so he's really the godfather of style to this community

of people who love, adore, and play basketball in the NBA.

Well it looks to me like, if it doesn't have wings,

Melo doesn't want it.

I love his theme of black, gray, red.

These work really well, they work well on his skin tone.

If LaMelo says he's done, I don't believe him.

To be honest, I'm done.

I'm gonna get a call next week.

I'm just only gonna get, like, little tats, if anything.

70% of the adverse events that happen

or are recorded in tattooing are from red ink.

What the reason is is a little scientific and, you know,

probably based on immune response and sensitivity

to the particle.

The body is constantly breaking down our pigments

throughout our life.

Red ink can have inflammation

or irritation years after you get it,

So it's really based on your own biology,

your own biochemistry, and your immune response

to the pigment.

There's also colors like purple

and purple has a lot of reds in it.

And most of the reactions happen because of red.

If it's my vote, he's got work to do, but they look good.

I like that he's got good ones.

His brother's got better ones.

The artist that made Lonzo Ball's tattoos

really specializes in color, actually.

One of the most impressive things he's ever done

in black and gray is on Lonzo with this Civil Rights tattoo.

Obama, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King.

What's really most beautiful about Lonzo's tattoos,

again, is we can tell what it is right away,

we can tell who it is right away,

and there's a theme through his whole arm.

It's not a mishmash of styles or subjects.

It's done so large and we see these players so small on TV,

we still can tell what it is.

This is a really, really well done tattoo.

These will never need touch-ups.

They're done in such great contrast

and they're done at a scale so large

that when Lonzo's in his 50s and 60s,

we'll still be able to identify who these people are.

The brain has this way of understanding things

that are even very blurry.

It's kind of like this skillset.

We recognize faces, especially in iconic photography.

We know these images as much as we know these faces,

we know these shots, we know this photography.

And so it will always connect for people.

On his other arm, this kinda gates of heaven and scripture.

I really like that 'cause, again,

we have one body part that has one theme

and that's something that really speaks to me

and it's well thought out.

Luka's got some great ones.

You're never gonna regret an animal tattoo.

You might regret your girlfriend or boyfriend's name,

but good choice there.

I like the symmetry of his eagle

and his all-seeing eye a lot

and his tiger's really well done.

Luka's one of the people I really wanna tattoo, so call me.

J.R. Smith might have been

the most tattooed NBA player ever.

We had to, like, really try to find space

for J.R. to tattoo him, he was that tattooed.

And he was that tattooed early in his career.

When he played for the Knicks,

I would tattoo him all the time,

but it was never anything big.

They even made a T-shirt out of J.R. Smith's tattoos

that became very famous because he's so iconic

and he's one of the only athletes that I know

of that have the Jordan logo.

And I remember I was at Amar'e Stoudemire's house once

and, you know, Iman Shumpert was there and Melo

and J.R., who was on the team at the same time.

Iman Shumpert was like, Man, I, you know,

I wanna get a a Jordan logo.

Amar'e Stoudemire was like, Pfft, why?

And he's like, What do you mean why? It's Jordan!

He goes, Man, get your own logo.

And he didn't get it and I'll never forget that.

This kind of like, don't glorify anybody, glorify yourself.

That was a cool conversation I got to witness.

But specifically to J.R.,

I don't know if anybody's more tattooed than J.R..

I mean down to every finger, every knuckle,

every bit of him is tattooed.

Young Money. He's old money now, we're the same age.

I think my favorite thing about Brittney Griner's tattoos

is the color work.

The flowers, so there's a balance in her design.

There's this delicate side of her arm

and then there's this more aggressive side.

So it's not just a lion, it's a lion roaring

which probably speaks to a lot of who she is as a person.

There's certainly this, you know, delicate nature

to this person and there's certainly this aggressive nature,

this competitive athlete.

She's also got symmetry, a lion and a skull.

These are aggressive imagery.

And then birds, flowers, color.

It's really stark contrast between the two.

I like her style.

Ja Morant's got what looks to me like small ones first

and then decided, alright, it's sleeve time.

David Beckham, very famous cloud tattoos.

This cloud work filler of a sleeve style.

It's a quick, easy way to get it done.

It really looks great on him.

He avoided his ditch, the bend in his arm and his elbow,

which is a smart move.

The inside of the arm at the ditch

and the elbow are probably the most painful parts.

If someone has a lot of tattoos

and they're kind of patchwork and they really wanna

go full sleeve, clouds, filler, smoke, motion.

These are all ways to fill the gaps.

Generally when I'm designing a sleeve from scratch,

I'm thinking about the shape more from the start

than you'll see in people who get tattoos

in this style, like Ja.

So Ja probably got a cross and he got a piece

at the top of his arm in his inner bicep

and inner form and then that was it.

I would recommend usually to design your sleeve from start,

but it's not always the case.

What I really like about Ja's tattoos

is we can tell what they are right away

and I think that's a really important thing

that gets lost sometimes.

Steven Adams is a monster,

one of the most intimidating players

to ever play in the NBA.

I think the tattoos add to it a little bit.

I like the consistency of his theme.

It looks like he had a couple before he did these sleeves.

His bicep has an image, his forearm has a word.

Beyond that, even the ones that are there

were made really cohesive with this design.

Another thing I really like about this design,

if you look around the midsection of his arm,

towards his elbow, that motion goes with the body,

so as he bends that motion, it actually increases.

It doesn't move against the natural motion of the body,

which is something I really love with successful tattooing.

I love Kobe Bryant and I love his tattoos.

Kobe's tattoos are really iconic as well because we learned

about Kobe and we knew Kobe and we loved Kobe so much,

really identifying person

and then he showed up with a tattoo.

And that was cool.

Wasn't something we expected to see from Kobe,

but it was also something delicate,

this crown with butterflies.

And then he kept getting tattooed and every one

of his tattoos were a tribute to someone he loved.

We could tell really easily what's most important

to Kobe Bryant through his tattoos.

I think it's really beautiful

that many NBA players have gotten tattoos to Kobe

as him being one of the most important people to them.

There's some poetry there.

My favorite thing about Courtney Williams's tattoo

is there's a theme, right side.

And then I notice she's got one tattoo

on her left shoulder there and I was like,

Oh man, almost perfect.

I'm sure she'll continue getting tattooed

and that'll balance, but her peace sign's really dope.

Similar to what Allen Iverson did in the NBA,

Courtney Williams is kinda having some

of that influence now in the WNBA as well.

We don't see a lot of WNBA players heavily tattooed,

but Courtney's one of 'em.

She's got a dope style.

Well, her lion tattoo is dope.

And she's even got her hand tattooed, so she's in the club.

[Interviewer] How bad do you think that knee tat hurt?

Knee tattoos are serious just in general.

When you get a knee tattoo that's big,

solid black, you're tough.

Tougher than me, that's for sure.

What I really love about Dame's tattoos, especially the one

on his left hand side and we're seeing the scripture,

is that angle moves with his body,

so it actually creates a shape.

We're never gonna sit down

and be able to read Dame's tattoo.

As far as imaging goes, it creates a really unique shape

and image and frame of him

and so I love this tattoo of this scripture on his arm.

You see what I'm saying,

how that angle changes with his body motion

and it all points to his center point?

I really think that's beautiful.

It looks like Dame got a lot of tattoos throughout his life,

maybe at multiple periods, but the consistency

of how they're tied together is really well.

We call it filler, right, and so it's not any one thing.

It's just background.

Sometimes it's noise, sometimes it's clouds,

sometimes it's motion or just gray shading

to frame the image for the eye.

I love Dame's tattoos.

His chest tattoo's pretty intricate. It's beautiful.

Jordan Clarkson's a baller.

The first thing that I see is the symmetrical portraits.

I'm not sure who they are, but I'll know

that those people are most important to him.

So as you look down, these people are right here.

And that's part of his identity.

What's the viewing angle of people and how do they view you?

What's your head-on image?

And having two portraits right there says a lot about him.

Praying hands, he's got Nipsey,

he's got a couple of portraits.

I like his gambler tattoo a lot. This is cool.

He's got a Bobblehead superhero son figure. That's cute.

I would bet they were done at separate times.

I bet he had his portrait of his son done

and then he's like, Lemme make him a little superhero.

Dude, he's heavily tattooed.

There's not a spot left on this arm. Maybe his thumb.

He's got his fingers tattooed, his hands tattooed.

He's what we call full.

Kevin Durant has my favorite nickname ever, Slim Reaper.

Kevin Durant ever came to me and said, What should I get?

I'd say, You have to get a reaper tattoo.

It's cold and that's just the coldest nickname ever.

His torso's heavily tattooed and,

yeah, you wouldn't guess it.

Kevin does a lot of things outside the NBA too

and so in business, and maybe that's part of his image

that he wants to keep, you know, more clean cut,

but he's pretty heavily tattooed on his stomach.

I don't often see people getting hidden tattoos.

It's almost like people wanna see them

and they want people to see them.

It's almost like this

what would I externalize that I feel internally?

And so that's almost a lot

of the reason why people get tattooed.

So to see somebody who's heavily tattooed,

but it's all very private, speaks to who Kevin Durant is.

He is kinda private, he is kinda reserved.

This speaks to his style.

I've never seen a Heath Ledger Joker tattoo.

[record scratches] I'm kidding.

I'm kidding, I'm totally kidding.

I've seen it a lot, I've seen it a lot.

But it's cool.

It speaks to that amazing actor who's not with us anymore

and the impact he had.

I really like DeMar DeRozan's Joker tattoo

and I like the symmetry of both

of his arms are tattooed with portraits,

so that's, again, plays to the balance of the body.

They fit his jersey well, they fit his body well.

He's got great shape and gray tattoos to match.

A lot of these it looks like,

although he has a sleeve, they weren't planned cohesively,

so he's got a bunch of different subject matter

and has filled spots, but he's done it well.

I think Richard Jefferson got this when he was,

like, 16 because I have a goofy tattoo just like this one.

That's what we all do.

It's like, All right, what would I get and not regret?

Well, me, love me some me.

But it's cool, it's part of his image now.

I think he's such a polished guy,

it's strange that he has a tattoo almost to begin with.

And then he doesn't have many.

So if he was covered in tattoos,

this RJ wouldn't stick out at all, right?

LeBron's got LJ on him,

Jordan's got Clarkson on his back.

It's consistent and common and the only reason it sticks out

to us is it's the only one.

A great tattoo will define you

and so we find this exists throughout all sports,

throughout all celebrities.

Think of Rihanna's hand tattoo. We saw it in Super Bowl ads.

It was just her hand, but we knew who it was.

So if we saw this tattoo

and we didn't see Richard Jefferson,

we'd still know who it is.

And so if that connection is made,

I always think it's a great tattoo.

Advice to young players would be,

if you're going to get tattooed, get great tattoos.

You can find great artists,

you have access to great artists,

they all wanna tattoo you,

they wanna do something great for you.

Don't be the designer of your tattoo.

Find somebody who's so great at tattooing

and designing tattoos, and then speak about your idea

and come up with a plan that's gonna look great visually.

NBA players are great at playing in the NBA.

Sometimes they're not great at designing tattoos

and so leverage an artist's skillset,

let them help you design something that'll be iconic

and timeless, and you'll enjoy your tattoo forever.

Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.