The Art Of The Tat: Fan Submissions

Todd just posted a great article on the fans losing their patience with all this arguing over who gets what of 9 billion dollars and I thought today would be a great day to show how there are some people out there, select people, who have the balls (metaphorically speaking….and literally, too I guess) to ink themselves with the Black and Gold. About a month ago I did a couple of posts on tattoos and encouraged our readers to submit some tattoos for us. Well, we had quite a few submissions and I am happy to present my top 3 NPC readers who have inked themselves.

This is really happening.

We wave our terrible towels. We wear our favorite throwback Steelers jerseys. We have our Steelers hats, our Steelers gloves. We even have our Steelers shoes. We have Steelers wallets and Steelers watches. And we have Steeler Ink. We are the warriors of the Black and Gold:

Randy Leach – With no description of his work, and just a picture of a tattoo that covers nearly the man’s entire back, I was immediately impressed with Leach’s tattoo. The sheer magnitude was the first thing I noticed. And then a very important detail was made clear to me: This guy left space for other Super Bowls. Unfortunately, I’m not sure when he got this tattoo, so I don’t know if it was before or after SB XL. If before, this clearly means that this guy was confident enough to give himself an incomplete tattoo knowing that it would look complete before his days on this earth are over. Beautiful confidence. That’s what I call that.

Al Johnson – Simply stated in his email, “…a Pittsburgh Steeler fan,” One word that came to mind when I first laid eyes on Al’s tat was “badassary.” I think that sums it up nicely. Definitely the most bad-ass tattoo that was submitted to me this time around. It is epic, and it is timeless, spanning the generations. This guy’s entire upper arm has been coated in an homage to the Black and Gold. Badassary.

Brian Mikulski – In his own words: “Read your story on NPC. Thought I would let you know the one Terrible Towel tat is mine. I have attached it here again along with my other arm which I think you will appreciate as well. Little about me; I am 40 years old from NJ and have been a Black and Gold fan since I was 8. Whole downstairs is a Steeler room and mailbox is a Steeler helmet. On Sundays I don’t go to church but stay home in what I like to call the Church of the Immaculate Reception. Go Stillers!” – Go Stillers indeed. You know what? Football is my church too. No judgment, no BS, just football. As Brian indicated in his email, the terrible towel tat was one that I chose to review earlier this off-season, so it’s clear that I already loved that one. It’s unique and an homage to Cope and his infamous Terrible Towel. His other arm basically settles the debate. Is it SteelerS Nation, or SteeleR Nation? Clearly it’s the latter. And who could argue with such a sweet Tat? Looks to me like he should add Mexico to the countries in which the Steeler logo engulfs it’s land.

All in all, it was a great batch of submissions. If you’ve got a tat you’d like to send my way to be featured on our next version of The Art of the Tat: Fan Submissions, just attach some photos to your email and send it to adammeckler@gmail.com. Tell me a little bit about yourself and why you got the tat. If you’re just a crazy fan with a crazy Steelers room or something, send me that stuff too. Crazy fans are crazy fans, some people are just scared of needles. I’d love to feature your Steelers memorabilia, game-room, man/woman cave…whatever!