NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman has always found new ways to shock people. In Detroit, he shocked the sports world with how he crashed the boards with reckless abandon. In San Antonio, he shocked people with his wildly colored hair and copious tattoos (at the time, the NBA was nowhere near as inked up as it is today.) In Chicago, Rodman shocked fans by the way he was able to meld into Jordan and Pippen’s team, and then shocked them again by taking a trip to Vegas in the middle of the NBA Finals. In retirement, he shocked the entire world by becoming BFFs with the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.
What we’re trying to say is that after seeing Rodman in the spotlight for the past three decades, he’s set the bar pretty high as to what we’d consider shocking behavior. And yet, against all odds, Rodman shocked us when he revealed his latest tattoo—a portrait of his girlfriend on his cheek.
The tattoo was inked by Van Johnson, a veteran tattooer you’d likely recognize from VH1’s Black Ink Crew Chicago. In the video posted above you can grab a peek at the tattoo as Rodman proclaims that he needs a drink, and who could blame him? Getting your face tattooed is not a lot of fun!
Given Rodman’s extensive dating history during his playing days—he dated Carmen Electra and Madonna among others—it’s fun to imagine what his collection would look like if he got a face tattoo for each and every one of his sweethearts. The romantic in us likes to think that this must be true love. In a quote to TMZ Sports, Johnson gave some validation to that opinion. “He was a champ, he sat through it,” Johnson told TMZ Sports. “Pretty random, but he love the hell out that girl.”
They say name tattoos can be a curse, but we haven’t heard anything about portraits on your face, so we wish the happy couple luck!
