NBA All-Star Jayson Tatum, who is 25 years old, has a lot of tattoos that tell a lot about his family, how he got into the game, and his thoughts. On the other hand, his physical trip starts with his dad.

Tatum said in 2019 that his desire to be like his father left him with no time for tattoos. His dad, Juætin Tatum, was a college basketball player at St. Louis University, and he had his own collection of dunks, which set a good example for a young Jayson.

But Tatum didn’t decide to publish his works until right before his retirement in 2017. His candied confession that these permanent tattoos were unbelievably painful read, “I felt like I would never do it again.”

He got a second tattoo because of becoming a father, which changed the course of his life. He wanted it to finish off the tattoos on his legs that he already had. Soon after, he added a picture of his mother to mark an important time in his life.

Tatum kept adding to his tattoo collection over time. Notably, to honor the late Kobe Bryant, he wears his high school and college shirts on his left thigh, along with two Black Panther jerseys that form the number 24 above them.

Steve Webebe, who is a tattoo artist, made a large collage on his back in 2022 to honor his childhood home in St. Louis. This city is still close to his heart, as shown by the mushroom cloud tattoo on his right leg that says “St. Louis – ’til the world blows.”

One of his right legs has a picture of him holding his son, Jayson Jr., and the words “like father, like son” written next to it. He also had the number “98” on his right knee, which stood for his birth year, and “BIG DEUCE” on his hand, which was a reference to his nickname, “Deuce.”