Role Models

This weekend I was at home with my family and of course we were watching the Chicago Bears like any other Sunday. I am used to watching professional sports with my family and friends and have realized how many professional athletes have tattoos before, but this weekend I thought about it in a different way.

So many people look up to professional athletes, from young children to grown adults, and consider them to be a role model. It seems that almost all of professional athletes have tattoos covering as much skin as possible, especially on their arms where it is most visible to others. Tattoos have grown to be much more accepted than they once were, but still they are not seen in the most positive light. Society has such a negative outlook on people who have tattoos, especially when one has an abundance of tattoos, but when they are professional athletes the stereotype seems to change.

It is not very common to hear anyone really talk about the tattoos that cover athletes bodies, but when someone on the street is covered in tattoos, people judge them instantly. I find this to be so interesting because many young children look up to these athletes and want to be just like them when they get older, and parents encourage this for the most part. I have not heard of anyone not wanting their child to not idealize an athlete, unless it is a Tiger Woods type situation. I believe that it has become a huge double standard in this country and don't understand why athletes' tattoos are so accepted when "ordinary" people's are not.