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Inked-Up Athletes Ready for Game Day
by Josh Coburn
Kenyari Addison
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A tattoo on Kenyari Addison's left arm shows a cross with banners bearing the words "Mary R.I.P." Mary is Kenyari's grandmother, who, he says, taught him all his life morals and how to be a good man.
She lived in the small town of West Point Mississippi, where she raised Kenyari until he moved to Atlanta at the age of nine. He stayed with her every summer after that until sports cut into his vacation. He got the tattoo four years after she died.
From high school to the pro's you will see the arms and legs of athletes in just about every sport covered with tattoos carrying meanings of many different kinds.
Marcus Myers has numerous tattoos, including a portrait of his grandmother and a picture of Jesus carrying the cross.
 
Marcus Myers
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The back of one Mars Hill lacrosse player, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a mural of animals and birds playing that great American game. Hawk, Falcon, Cardinal, and Eagle defend a goal in the right shoulder against Wolf, Bear, Mountain Lion, and Buffalo playing from the left kidney. All had significance for the Native American people who first played lacrosse -- the Iroquois, Eastern Cherokee, and others. And they have their own significance for our Lion defenseman.
Hawk, a defenseman, captains the birds and faces Wolf, on the attack, who represents the intensity of the warrior. (Wolves have fascinated our player all his life.)
At midfield Falcon, representing our player's grandfather, an Air Force veteran, is matched against Bear, captain of the animals and symbol of wisdom. Down near the right kidney Cardinal, the North Carolina state bird, attacks defenseman Lion, representing our player and Mars Hill. Eagle, paying tribute to the United States of America, tends goal for the birds. Buffalo, standing for our player's family and friends, plays that position for the animals.
Does our player plan on adding more players to the great game on his back? "Maybe in the near future," he says.
A tattoo of grim reaper stands out boldly on the chest of Shane Menafee, a senior football player. He got the tattoo back in 2004 as a reminder of a life change he went through and never wants to repeat. It's a reminder that he never again wants to be that person he used to be.
Shane Menafee
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Defensive back Rashawn Champion has the Lord's Prayer tattooed on his arm and the names of his children tattooed on his chest.
Another inked athlete is Lions' outside linebacker Xavier Jordan. A scroll on his shoulder reads, "I Am My Brother's Keeper." He got the tattoo back in 2006 as a reminder to himself and others that he is the person who will always look after his brother. He also says that the tattoo reminds him that every time he steps on that football field he plays as hard as he can for his family and brother and that he has a purpose to play for.
Xavier Jordan
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Whether humorous or serious, tattoos often represent events that are inked in the mind as permanently as the images are in the skin. For Kenyari Addison it was the day his grandmother died.
On August 31, 2001, the night before his first game as a starting quarterback for Jonesboro (GA) High School, Kenyari was listening to R. Kelly's song "I Wish", and had a vision of a woman in white pulling on his head. He felt that something was not right. On game day morning, the call came from his aunt telling him that his grandmother had passed.
Instead of staying home and mourning over his grandmother, he went to school and decided to play in the game that night because it was what he and his family thought his grandmother would want him to do. He ended up playing one of the best games in his high school career. After the game he looked up in the stands and saw a vision of his grandmother, standing between his mom and aunt. He knew then that his grandmother was okay and was still watching after him.
Four years later Kenyari memorialized that moment by tattooing his body, and not a day goes by that it doesn't remind him of what he is in school for and what he plays for every time he steps on the field.
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