Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Ryan Roberts of the Arizona Diamondbacks said he appreciates when people ask him about his many, many tattoos. The subject never gets boring to him — which is fortunate, because he is covered from neck to toe in ink, his nickname is “Tatman” and he fields lots of questions about all of it.
“I can’t say they shouldn’t [ask],” Roberts told Big League Stew. “When I first started getting tattoos, I never expected to get a lot. Over the course of my life, everything started happening for a reason. If people want to know why, I’ll definitely explain the reasons behind them. If someone’s interested, I’m honored to tell them.”
Roberts, who turned 31 in September, said he gets tattoos in order to show what inspires him: his Christian religion, as it relates to family and his other life experiences, including baseball. The first tats others probably notice are the Japanese characters for “family” on the left side of his neck. And there’s a whole lot more where that came from.
One question he can’t answer is: “How many tattoos do you have?” He stopped counting at 30 or so, and that was a while ago. Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton, as a point of reference, reportedly has 26 tattoos.
“Oh, Lord. I have no idea,” Roberts said with a laugh after being asked to add them up. “In the tattoo world, they don’t really count so much, once you have sleeves [covered arms]. It’s more or less just hours spent. Hours that I’ve sat have turned into years, probably.”
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WRITTEN BY David Brown & FULL STORY HERE