Tattoo tales, Part 2: PJ Washington wants more; Terry Rozier reminded of pain -

Unable to work out at the Hornets’ training facility because of the coronavirus pandemic and with the fitness center in his complex locked to help lessen the germ spread, PJ Washington doesn’t have many options.

He’s at the mercy of Mother Nature.

“They shut down the gym at my little place, so the biggest thing to do is really just try to go outside and try to get some cardio in,” Washington told The Athletic on Thursday. “Just running around wherever. That’s the biggest thing I’ve been trying to keep my mind on doing.”

Of course, the rookie can’t do much else. It’s unclear when the NBA will begin playing games again and the team’s practice facility is off-limits to the players and personnel, leading Washington and others to get creative to do something active to keep them in shape as much as possible given the circumstances.

He’s almost at a loss for words.

“I would never have imagined anything like this,” Washington said. “It definitely sucks. I wish that we were still playing. But I think that everybody is benefiting from staying inside and just trying to spend time with their family. I think it’s good for everybody to stay inside and spend time with their family.”

All this free time got Washington thinking and he fired off a tweet recently giving insight into where his mind was leaning: It’s about that time to get a new tattoo. He’s gone too long without hearing that buzz of the tattoo shop and feeling that tool pressing his skin, coloring it with a personal design.

Need some more ink 😕

— Paul Washington Jr (@PJWashington) March 21, 2020

He can’t wait, but knows he must until the social distancing guidelines change.

“I think it’s tough with all this quarantine stuff,” Washington said. “But I think I’m definitely going to get some stuff before next season. I want to finish my stomach. I want to get my arm done and I want to finish my leg, too. So there’s a lot of ink coming.”

And that’s been the case since he was 19 years old. That’s when he got hooked.

“Well, all my tattoos mean something to me so I think it’s really good for me,” he said. “And then once I got my first one, I was like just yeah, I can’t stop. So I just love them. It’s a lot of pain, but at the end of the day, it’s definitely dope looking at that stuff on your body. So it’s a lot of fun.”

Washington’s initial foray into the tattoo world came in the form of a Bible verse. He has the words from Proverbs 3:5-6 written to serve as a permanent reminder about his journey.

It reads: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own and understanding; in all ways submit to Him and he will make your paths straight.” He got it after his freshman season at Kentucky to help stay focused.

“I feel at the time that was big for me,” Washington said. “Just trusting in God and trusting the process and everything. Just doing what I was supposed to do each and every day and eventually, it’s going to lead to where I want to be. So that’s why I got that one.”

“I think my first one, since it was just like numbers and letters and stuff, that one really didn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt until I went back and got shading around it. That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s nothing to play with.’ But just the feeling of having it, and going back and looking in the mirror and seeing that you’ve got it is just a great feeling. So once I got my first one, I just couldn’t stop.”

When it comes to the tattoo that carries more sentiment than others, that’s a no-brainer. It rolls off his tongue quickly.

“Probably the one on my stomach,” he said. “I’ve got an angel, but it’s my mother’s face on it. So that probably meant the most. It definitely hurt the most, too.”

But it was worth it. Hey, we are talking about mom here. He got it last year following his sophomore season.

“Because me and her, I feel like me and her are so similar,” Washington said. “We do a lot of things like each other. Obviously, she’s a big part of my life and I just feel like she deserves to be on my body. So actually right before I got the tattoo, I was just going to get an angel and I was talking to my mom and I was just like you know what, ‘Mom, just send me a picture and I’m just going to get it tatted.’ So then I just put her picture on there.”

That’s actually how he decides which designs he goes with. He scours social media and if something comes across his iPhone that he enjoys, he makes sure to store the photo somewhere.

“Really whatever I see on Instagram, I’ll save the video or I’ll save the picture,” Washington said, “and I have a bunch of tattoos of different people on Instagram that I saved. And I just picked what I like from there and just try to put it on my body and make it mean something to me. I feel like it’s hard to put down everything that I want because there is just so much to get. So just doing that is a lot easier for me.”

He’s all for whatever lends itself to expressing things permanently through ink.

“I think it’s just dope, just the fact that you can put it on your body and it’s going to be there forever,” Washington said. “Once you get it, it’s like you’ve got to stick with it. So you’ve got to make sure that you like it and make sure that the person you are going to is a good tattoo artist. I’ve been blessed to have good tattoo artists and great tattoos. So I’m excited about it and I’m definitely looking forward to getting some more.”

To get a better understanding of the inspiration behind some of their tattoos, The Athletic spoke with several of Washington’s teammates before the games were suspended. In the first part of the series, Cody Martin, Devonte’ Graham, Miles Bridges and Willy Hernangomez shared their stories. In this second installment, Terry Rozier, Jalen McDaniels and Dwayne Bacon offered insight into their body art.

Terry Rozier (Ron Chenoy / USA Today)

Terry Rozier

It’s not hard for Rozier to recall the time he felt that unmistakable sharp pain associated with body art for the first time during his days growing up in Ohio. He was only in junior high school, so he elected to keep it simple.

“Being young, obviously I got my name,” he said. “I don’t know why. Like I would forget my name or something. I feel like around that time in middle school, I think females were getting tattoos on their wrist and stuff and everybody started getting their little tattoos. Shit, I was into basketball. So I just got a basketball tat.”

Since then, he’s added so many he’s lost count. Two stick out most.

“My favorite tat I’d probably say is the owl or the rose growing out the concrete,” Rozier said. “The owl is basically like some secret power that I don’t really like to reveal too much about. But the rose growing out the concrete I got it from Tupac. Basically, it’s rare to see a rose growing out of concrete. So it’s like you are one of a kind. It’s just basically for myself. Representing myself.”

So how does he determine which look to go with? Typically, it begins with a brainstorming session.

“Me and my tattoo artist get together,” Rozier said. “He definitely helped me on a lot of ideas. Mike Miller. He’s up in Ohio. But actually some people in Charlotte just hit him up (in February) because he does (mural) painting, too. They want him to paint another side of the building (across) from Spectrum — somebody hit him up down here wanting to do it. But me and him get together. We go over ideas and what I really want to do. Sometimes I just come up with my own and it has something to do with my family.”

He’s going to have to find at least a few more because he’s not quite done.

“I don’t have my back (yet), I don’t think I have nothing left for this left leg,” he said. “The leg hurt. The leg was the worst. But I’ve still got my back to do and when I start my family I’ll probably do something unique with that.

“I do it for the results. Always. You’ve got to get through it. I do it for the results because once you finish, you’re like, ‘Yeah.’ But the pain. Oh, man. The pain, it’s bad everywhere. Everywhere.”

He’s just glad he’s not immediately viewed as a threat by some just because his skin is covered with ink. He knows it hasn’t always been that way.

“I think it’s just a part of it,” Rozier said. “The generation obviously is changing. It’s not the same. So we can talk about what happened before all we want, but the reality is a lot of things are different. So is accepting tattoos. It’s just a way of art. Some people use the art to decorate their body, some people I feel go overboard, some people don’t have that much. But at the end of the day, it’s your body. You’ve got to do what you want to do.”

Jalen McDaniels

The first time McDaniels felt the tattoo needle pressing into his skin, he was 18. He had the initials of the three people who are the closest to him — his mother, Angela Jackson, father, Will McDaniels, and little brother Jaden, who could be a top-20 pick in this year’s draft — etched into his leg.

His reasoning for choosing that one first was rather simple.

“My momma wouldn’t let me get a tattoo when I was in high school,” McDaniels said, “so I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got to wait until I got to college.’ And then so I was like let me get something meaningful, you know?”

That doesn’t necessarily equate to it being the one that’s most significant. That distinction belongs to a design that’s on his arm.

“It’s my cousin (and says) R.I.P. Silky,” McDaniels said. “He was from Chicago. My whole family is from Chicago and he was like the biggest Chicago Bulls fan. So I got that for him.”

Of course, like most, McDaniels figured he needed to have some kind of inspirational message. So he has it inked on his hand.

“Diamond in the rough,” he said. “I feel like just me being through what I’ve been through and just trying to get … I’ve been through so much like working to get here and I felt like this is just me, who I am. I’m a diamond in the rough. Like, I’m going to make it even through the tough times and I’m still going to be here. You feel me?”

Dwayne Bacon

Consider Bacon a savvy vet when it comes to the tattoo game.

“I think I got my first tattoo when I was 15,” Bacon said. “When I first got it I was like, ‘Man, this don’t really hurt that bad.’ So I was like forget it, I’m just about to start doing more. And shit by the time of my senior year, I had half a sleeve. But almost a full sleeve. So when I got to college I just went crazy. I got two full sleeves and yeah, I’ve just been going ever since.”

Hard, too. But the actual story behind that initial one, though, is funny considering how he was forced to tell on himself.

“I wanted to get something with my mom just so if I get in trouble,” Bacon said. “This was my first tattoo, so for like two months I was wearing wristbands. a bunch of wristbands. Or hoodies, just trying to cover it up. Because I had asked my mom and she was like, ‘Nah.’ So I just wore a bunch of wristbands trying to cover it up. And then one day after a football game, I ended up reaching out the window to get the food from a fast-food spot. I think it was McDonald’s or something. Ended up reaching and her boyfriend saw it. And I thought like, ‘Oh, he’s going to tell on me.’ So I ended up going to my mom first. She was going crazy and was like, ‘Don’t get no more.’ Now she’s just like, ‘You are grown now.'”

That’s partially why none of the others that cover up the majority of his 6-6 frame can top that image of his mother’s face along with her birth year inscribed on his left forearm. Well, that one and another of the person who constantly leaves him beaming from earring to earring.

“Just to know that she is always with me,” Bacon said. “She is, if not one of my biggest supporters, one of my closest friends. I just feel like I’m a mother’s boy. And also I’ve got my son’s face when he was a baby. That just always sticks with me too just because he’s my first child and he just brings so much joy. A little bit of frustration, but a lot of joy to my life and I feel like it kind of molded me into a complete man.

“My dad raised me so well to be a respectful young man, so just having my own child and seeing how my dad treated me, like I see why my dad cared like that. He was just always a great dad but he molded me to be the right guy.”

Bacon hasn’t increased his stable of tattoos since last year, when he went for a little work on his hand. Turns out that may end up being the last time he does it, period. He’s running out of canvas.

“I’m really, like, done,” he said. “I really don’t have more space. But I’m happy with my work, man. Most people thought when I was younger, they would portray you as a bad guy. I had tattoos or this and that. I feel like I’m still a great guy. My rep around, when I go around people, is that he’s a good guy, a clean-cut guy. He’s very respectful. So I don’t portray it in no way. Tattoos or not, I’m going to be the same.”

Stereotypes, he said, are not welcomed.

“I think most people think when you see a guy with a lot of tattoos, it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s just a bad guy,'” Bacon said. “I think that’s the first thing that comes to mind. But when you just got a certain level of mind and knowledge, you don’t really tend to care about that stuff. I don’t care about all that stuff. I can meet somebody and the way I talk to them and the way I approach myself to them can totally change you around. But that’s just how I go off of it. You don’t know me unless you meet me in person and get to figure me out. So I just take it as that.”

(Top photo of PJ Washington: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

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