Tracking Tats

Mike Wilson: Ethan Swan and I couldn't see the players' tattoos from Section 217 of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but Swan still knew who was inked and who wasn't. LeBron James? Obviously. Chris Bosh? A swirl of images (musical notes, tiger, skull) on his back. Deron Williams? "He's got a basketball tattoo," Swan said — just as at least one player on every NBA team did at one point three years ago. Of the Nets on the floor in this early May playoff game, only Shaun Livingston was a blank canvas.

Except nobody really is — not any of us, and certainly not Swan. For four seasons, he has kept a database of NBA players' tattoos — every Chinese letter, Bible verse, jersey number, Rolls Royce logo and winged angel. He puts it all on his Tumblr, his way of getting in the game. But "NBA tattoos" is more than a fanboy project; it's an antidote to an Internet rife with articles, lists and superlatives mocking athletes' tattoo choices: 11 worst, 22 worst, ugliest. Swan's blog is a small protest against that kind of reflexive judgment.

"It's just dumb to have an opinion about this," he said. "You don't have enough ways to judge a player, you have to assert this thing that's totally meaningless."