The permanent fan: passionate enough to put it in ink

This is a multimedia examination of why certain sports fans choose to get tattoos representative of their favorite teams. Eight fans of Los Angeles area sports teams are featured in video shorts, each sharing why their personal connection to a team was powerful enough to incite a tattoo. As demonstrated throughout, there are unique reasons to get such tattoos, but there are common themes that permeate from fan to fan regardless of sport, gender, profession or background. ❧ Along with the videos, this project is hosted on a website that includes four written articles, photographs, an audio slideshow and an interactive timeline, all providing a balanced look and analysis of tattoo culture at large—and more specifically, of tattoo culture as it relates to sports. ❧ As the backbone of the project, the four articles aim to unfold the layers of sports fandom that lead to such permanent action, being sure to understand how these layers and the common themes from fan to fan relate to the history of tattooing as a form of both practical and artistic human expression. And as tattooing further relates to sports, it’s important to consider how the modern tattoo has come of age and grown more acceptable alongside the game of basketball and the National Basketball Association, a league in which around 80% of the players are tattooed. Lastly, while tattooing is still considered a permanent choice by most, that notion is less and less true as laser removal techniques become safer, more affordable and increasingly widespread. Even so, the fans featured throughout this project view their own tattoos as permanent and see them as the definitive way to prove their fandom indisputably.