In the past few years, professional atheletes have really helped to ignite the popularity of tattoo. Whether you choose to take that as a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you, but it seems that no matter what pro sport you decide to focus on, there are tons of atheletes who are tattooed. One of the most tattooed professional sports out there has got to be soccer (football). It almost seems that soccer stars like David Beckham have made big news over the past few years with his tattoos than with his actual athleticism.
Now however, it’s not soccer players that are making headlines over tattoos, but rather a team from Germany. Werder Bremen, a team in Germany’s Bundesliga has just banned their players from being tattooed during the season. Surprisingly, for once when tattoos have been banned in some capacity, this time it isn’t about a disregard for tattoos or how they look or some sort of ancient outdated stereotype. No, this time the ban is a result of the team’s officials fearing that players could have negative reactions to the tattoos and end up on the injured list, missing matches. As miniscule as the odds of this happening are, it has happened recently, to 24-year-old striker Eljero Elia from Werder Bremen’s rival team, Hamburg.
‘Ironically, the ban was sparked by the misfortune of a player for Bremen’s hated local rivals, Hamburg, whose 24-year-old striker Eljero Elia (pictured, left) was sidelined last season after a tattoo went septic.
The Dutch player’s discomfort was so bad that he was unable to train, or even wear a shirt, for a spell last season.
And while such an extreme reaction is relatively rare – and probably not helped by Elia’s full-chest display – players’ tattoos often cause irritation and discomfort while fresh.’
Really, this has nothing to do with the tattoos and more to do with the person themselves. If a person has an allergy or is susceptible to a negative reaction from a tattoo, it’s just the way it goes. But from a preemptive stand point, I guess Werder Bremen team officials are probably doing the right thing.