This Birdman isn’t Lil Wayne’s daddy, and ironically his name has nothing to do with hip-hop; flying high is simply the slogan.
Chris “Birdman” Andersen has arguably had one of the most unique runs in the NBA. The Long Beach, Cali native’s road to the Miami Heat was riddled with hardships, but one thing that always remained constant was his affinity for body art.
Now, at 34, the baller is one of the most tattooed players in the league, with a presence that’s hard to ignore when multi-colored tattoos are flying across the court.
At 6’10”, the forward has more prime skin-real estate than the average height person, and he plans to fill it all.
In celebration of his uniqueness, and the Miami Heat’s current trip to the Finals, we’ve rounded up 4 facts about Chris’ tattoo collection. Check them out below.
1. He used downtime from the NBA (on a two-year ban from in 2006 for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy) to get more ink. In an Inked Magazine interview, the baller told the magazine that he spent his suspension getting tats:
“Once I got suspended, I had a lot of free time on my hands. I was in the shop all the time. I just got tatted up. That’s when it blew up. About 80 percent of [my tattoos] are all from that time.”
2. His body art is 13 years in the making, and like most people, he fell into the Chinese symbol trap:
“Back in 2000, I had just gotten back from China and I wanted to get a tattoo. I did the piercing thing, but it just wasn’t my style, so I got out of that and jumped into tattoos. The first two tattoos I got were Chinese symbols on my left and right forearms, representing the good and the bad.”
3. In addition to his infamous Free Bird tattoo, he has wings tattooed on his inner biceps. Their meaning?
“Those hurt, but that mainly came from Birdman, my nickname. Flying high, taking over the sky.”
4. As for the most visible of them all, his neck tattoo, he explains:
“I’m a free bird, man. I’m always going to be free. Simple as that.”
But we’ve also read that it supposedly has something to do with his love for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s music!
Photos: Getty
SOURCE: INKED Magazine
