I’ve seen a lot of wordy tattoos in my day, but I have yet to see a full speech. That was, until I came across Alex Rhode’s new leg tattoo the other day. The tattoo is a full 139 words and encompasses, as you can imagine, a good portion of his leg. The tattoo is in theory pretty damn cool there is just one problem, Rhodes seems a bit unclear on the tattoo’s origin.
Alex Rhode’s is a 26 year old British football player with Rotherham United. The tattoo is a portion of an inspirational speech Rhode’s thought came from Nelson Mandela which he got because, The speech, which reads; “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Is commonly attributed to Mandela, all though he never actually spoke it. It was actually written by a peace activist, Marianne Williamson. So, Rhode’s is a little off in this thinking, but the message is still clear and that’s really all the matters isn’t it? After all, Rhodes finds he draws inspiration from the tattoo every time he looks at, and that is better then being historicaly correct any day. To read more, go to the The Herald, or Wiki.