Firmly sitting up and attentive as he digs into his memory banks, Kelly Oubre almost transforms into a movie director as he extracts the scene from his brain.
The Charlotte Hornets swingman recounts his sophomore year at George Bush High School in Fort Bend, Texas. It was testing time, he said, when state-mandated standardized exams are administered.
“And I was exempt from one of my tests so I left school,” Oubre said. “I went to the tattoo shop during lunch, my free period, and then I got tatted. It was a basketball with thorns around it and it’s in hands and it says, ‘I do it for God because He is my savior.’ The reason I got that tattoo is because there was actually a basketball player, his name is D’Angelo Harrison. He plays overseas now, but he was really, really big in Texas and he was blasted. Like whole body tattooed in high school.”
Harrison’s ink inspired Oubre to stomach the entire process in his first foray at a tattoo parlor. Good thing, too. Because the setting didn’t exactly inspire beauty.
“It was in the trap,” Oubre said. “They had dead rats on the floor. It was really hood over there, but I just wanted to get tattooed. But the adrenaline that I had, it helped me forget the pain. It felt like a scratch.”
A scratch that’s had him itching for more ever since, a similar feeling that’s transpired for many of Oubre’s teammates. Multiple members of the Hornets have turned their bodies into a canvas. For them, it’s the intersection of artistic expression and storytelling.
Their love of body ink typically began long before they made it to the pros and almost each of them followed the same blueprint. They got one, and then they got hooked. Quickly.
“Once I got that tattoo, I actually came back to school and had my shirt rolled up,” Oubre said. “You know all big, cool guy, had my shirt rolled up walking through the hallway. New tatt, new ink. But then as I went home and I kept looking at it all day and night, I was like, ‘Man, that looks lonely out there, really weak.’ Once you get one it’s like a domino effect. You want to blast up every part of your body.”
And that’s what Oubre has done. He keeps his main tattoo artist — British Columbia, Canada-based Steve Wiebe — busy.
Oubre’s left leg features a portrait of rapper Nipsey Hussle and inspirational musicians Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, and Prince. Even Prince’s alternate ego is accounted for.
“I think that is the most iconic thing ever,” Oubre said. “Somebody can change their name from letters to an actual logo. I had to get that on me.”
Among the inscriptions on his left arm are three words intertwined: love, wins and Shylyn. It’s something he got for his fiancée to remind the both of them that that love wins no matter what you go through.
Fleur-de-lis are prevalent all over Oubre’s body as well to remind him of the bayou and his birthplace of New Orleans. He boasts an alligator, a snapshot of the Superdome. The St. Louis Cathedral. A street car. Mardi Gras beads. A brown pelican — Louisiana’s state bird.
A samurai. Tsunami wave, with the word Papi to form his nickname.
Jet Li. Bruce Lee.
“I’m a big fan,” he said, “of both of them.”
There’s more. Much more. Oubre has “Infamous dope soul” written in script leading up his left arm and the words “Soul never dies.” A picture of his grandmother. One eyeball with a cross inside of it. Religious portraits of God and Jesus. A unicorn and a phoenix.
And ...
“I’m a rockstar,” he said, “so you know I had to put the guitar on there.”
Each has a story to tell, and they haven’t come without consequence. Oubre said he gets stereotyped because of his tattoos, and has since that day in Texas when he discovered a new joy that hasn’t waned a bit over the last decade.
“Realistically, the judgmental factor, that’s the life of Papi, man,” Oubre said. “People judge me by not even knowing me. I can’t even say a word and people already have a stigma about me. But if you get to know me you realize the beauty in all of the struggles that I’ve been through, all the things that I’ve overcome and that I am better now through those things. So it just goes the same way.
“I think that’s a big stigma, but I think I’m doing what I want to do with my body, that I’m blessed with. I’m telling my story. And it makes me feel better to be able to tell my story.”
Looking to dig deep into the inspiration behind some of their tattoos and why they cherish them, The Observer spoke with Oubre’s teammates about their personal portraits. Here are some of their personal perspectives:
MILES BRIDGES
Miles Bridges is a walking safari.
“The new ones I got is probably my animal arm,” Bridges said. “I’ve got a wolf on there. A bear, an eagle, a lion. The eagle and lion, they represent leadership. And all the other ones are just my favorite animals.”
Bridges might have the most noticeable tattoos of anybody on the team. It could stem from the Hornets’ fourth-year forward being extremely photographable thanks to his high-rising dunks often shared on social media in super-slow-motion clips.
He’s already pretty adept at conveying his thoughts in an articulate style given his enjoyment of rapping. Telling his story through ink is just another medium.
“It just expresses it on the court.” Bridges said. “I get a lot of compliments after I get done playing saying how they like my tattoos and all that stuff. But I’ll say my favorite right now is my animal arm. That probably has the most graphics and the most detail to it. Yeah, I like that the most.”
Similar to the improvising fashion he puts forth in the air while figuring out how he’s going to throw down an alley-oop, Bridges tries to come up with creative tattoo ideas, including his most recent.
“I’ve got my dad — me and my dad — a picture of when I was a baby on my right leg,” Bridges said. “This is my favorite picture, really. Me and my dad when I was younger. So I just wanted to get that to symbolize him. I am going to get some stuff for my mom soon.”
“My kids,” he continued, “I plan on getting something for my kids. I don’t know yet because that’s my kids. I don’t know yet because that’s something big. But yeah I’m going to get something with my kids soon. I’ve just got to think of what it is.”
When it comes to his elaborate collection, there’s another tattoo many people can’t see. And it holds significance in its own unique way.
Bridges has “Flint,” where he grew up in Michigan, spelled out in large letters across his upper back. Still, it can’t quite top the lions and tigers. A few more wild kingdom members may be necessary.
“Yeah for sure, I’ve got to finish that one,” Bridges said. “Until I finish that one, I’m going to stick with the animal arm. But nah, the Flint one I’ve got to finish that. I’ve got to put my street sign on there, I’ve got to put more graphics of the city onto my back. So that one is going to be a good one.”
TERRY ROZIER
Trying to recall a few of the new augmentations he’s made to his collection of tattoos, Terry Rozier takes a second to get it right.
“I think I’ve got some leg s---,” Rozier said. “Pablo Escobar, El Chapo on my leg. I’ve got Scarface. I just got a couple of people that I idolize. I got Rev. Run. I’ve got Tupac. I think they all share something in common. They’ve all got power, or some type of power that I like or want some day.”
More than a dozen years have passed since Rozier’s skin was initially marked up by the tattoo gun. Age 14 to be precise, is when he received his introduction to the experience.
“I got a basketball with a crown on it and my name over it,” Rozier said. “Everybody was kind of getting tattoos in middle school. So I definitely wanted one and it kind of took off from there. I love art, so it’s like the best way of explaining my art.”
That’s partially why Rozier enjoys tattoos so much. They represent something for him. A mini motion picture, filled with credits and all. He was raised in Northeast Ohio, spending most of his younger days in Cleveland, and it’s his way of breaking down the path to where he resides and where he wants to end up one day.
“They tell a story all the time for sure,” Rozier said. “They’ve always meant something to me. I’ve got people’s names on me, my family members’ face tatted on me for motivation. Quotes, a rose growing out of concrete. People that’s passed away, that’s close to me. Just stuff like that. Just being creative. I’ve got all my idols. I’ve got Michael Vick. My kid’s name on me. Where I’m from. My neighborhood. But yeah, just a mixture of everything. But it’s mainly my life, what represents me or what I like.”
It’s not complete, either. He’s contemplating his latest power move and envisions having a bare area of his body covered in ink.
“I’ve been talking to my tattoo artist and he’s going to come up next month,” Rozier said. “But at some point, I’m going to hit my back. I don’t have nothing on my back, so I’m going to hit my whole back at some point this summer.”
JALEN MCDANIELS
As a teenager growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Jalen McDaniels salivated at the idea of adding ink to his slim frame. Whether it was hanging around his buddies or strolling through the halls of his school, he couldn’t help but notice the number of people who were sporting some sort of special design attached to a section of their skin.
McDaniels wanted in. There was a small problem, though.
“See everybody had tattoos in high school and my momma would not let me get a tattoo,” McDaniels said. “I had to wait till college, 18. As soon as I got to college, I got a tattoo on my leg that says ‘Family.’ That’s the first one I got.”
The physical pain of receiving his first tattoo was rampant, yet, in a matter of hours, he readied himself for a repeat.
“The first one, it hurt,” McDaniels said. “But I was there at the tatt shop like four days later, got the back of my calves done. I was starting to get addicted to it at first and then, yeah, I got a few and then I just cut down, and waited and kept going later on.”
McDaniels’ love for ink drove him to increase the number of tattoos he’s accumulated in the last two years since being drafted by the Hornets, including a phrase on his hand that reads: “Only God can judge me.”
“Got that one because I feel like for everybody, just be yourself,” McDaniels said. “Nobody can judge you. Don’t care what people say, just be yourself and only the man upstairs can judge you. He made you.”
Some of his favorites include “Against all odds” and a brick wall that spells out “Federal Way’s Finest” to represent his hometown in Washington.
“I had to put the finest part,” he said, “because you know how that goes.”
There’s also the phrase “V-Lone,” which stands for live alone, die alone.
Next up on McDaniels’ human easel? Most likely something to honor Virgil Abloh, the African-American designer who broke barriers in the luxury clothing industry. Abloh died in December at age 41 from a rare form of brain cancer and it stunned McDaniels.
“Like a lot of people, I feel like Virgil was that person I looked up to a lot,” McDaniels said. “So I feel like I’ve got to get something with my boy on here.
“Just him being creative, being black, an African-American clothing designer. It’s just crazy. He had so much influence on everybody, his style. I just looked up to everything he did. It was just crazy.”
