When I read a book, or learn different things

that I can carry with me, you know, principles in life,

I’ll put them on my skin.

I’ll put them on my body that they’ll always remind me

to stay grounded and stay humble.

Stay in the moment.

[gentle music]

When I got my first tattoo, I was about 20 years old,

a couple of years in the league already,

play in the NBA.

My brother, my sister, couple of my friends,

they’re like, man, When you gonna get your first tattoo?

You know what I mean?

You got money, you’ve made it, might as well get some ink.

So I’m like, you know, I think it’s about time.

A lot of people had tatts, you know,

getting in to the league, from LeBron, seeing KD,

I thought KD was dope ’cause under his jersey

was all tatted up.

AI, obviously.

But really it’s just my brother and my sister, you know?

They really inspired me to do my tattoos.

My first tattoo was the yin and yang on my back.

Being black and white in America, the yin and yang,

it spoke to me instantly.

The fluidity, the circle of it,

the symbiosis of black and white.

At its essence is she’s balance, you know?

And so that’s kind of how I try to live my life.

The yin and yang, I actually sketched myself.

The skeleton hand is connected by strings

dropping a crystal ball into a part of the yin and yang.

The human hand is dropping a basketball

into the yin and yang.

And it’s cool, you know?

The crystal ball to me it just symbolizes the unknown.

You know, it’s kind of like life and death

and not to be scared of death, and,

life to me is basketball, really.

You know what I mean?

It’s really what it comes down to and I’m connected to it.

I got the ball on a string.

I know at some point in time I’m going to have to let it go,

but right now…

[upbeat gentle music]

The hour glass, if you look closely,

it has a quasar, or a supernova inside the hourglass

in reverse, it’s going out.

Just to symbolize that we as humans, although we try,

we can’t encapsulate time.

Yeah, when it comes down to it,

the ape head with the top missing,

his brain is kind of blown out of his head.

He has atoms and electrons and protons,

swirling around his brain, and really,

it just comes down to evolution.

We, as humans have evolved, I think that mind is the power,

and mind is the future.

On my ribs I did the tree of life,

and it was after reading a book called

‘Transcendental Meditation’.

It’s just really about the essence of life,

living a fulfilled life and transcending some of

the petty circumstances, and some petty things

that we go through as humans and emotions that

we have to sort out as humans,

and kind of just be a bigger than that.

I mean, you learn so much just from seeing trees.

The deeper the roots, the taller the tree can grow.

For so long seedling,

roots and roots and roots before it actually even emerges.

And then everybody sees, oh, my gosh,

look at this sprout, it’s finally emerged,

but they don’t understand how long

that it’s actually been in rooting itself.

You know, you don’t want it to leaf, you water the roots.

And as people we don’t necessarily have roots,

but when some of the circumstances around you

aren’t going well, you really have to

enrich what’s going on on the inside,

and then your circumstances around you will change, so.

It was really a deep message for me.

And something that actually grounds me.

‘Aaron Gordon’s Quest for Enlightenment’.

It’s just learning

different ways

to cope with being black in America.

And then just being a person in this world, you know?

A part of living is suffering

and there’s a lot of different ways to cope

whether it would be negative or positive.

And I was just looking for a different positive ways to cope

with some of the struggles and some of the stresses in life.

My favorite artists right now is Roly.

He’s out of Orlando, he does a bunch of dudes,

he do like Rick Ross, he was on Heat Master.

He’s dope, man, I think he one of the best artists there is,

you know, period.

I definitely got a favorite.

It’s this one,

not the tree of life but surrounding the tree of life

is a native American.

It’s a skeleton, native American chief, I think it’s dope.

You got the head wrap, and then he got the bandana on too,

and it just reminds me of the poor teaching.

How much bull Manifest Destiny was, you know?

What they tried to pass that over, what they tried to

pull the wool over our eyes from.

It just reminds me of my ancestors that were massacred.

I have a tattoo, she’s a woman and the candle

tucked in between the arm of the skeleton

of the native American.

Once again, it just brings me back to the essence of life,

and kind of the essence of a woman,

and how much they give and how much they light our way.

You know, I think there’s nothing more beautiful

than the essence of a woman.

On the back of my calf I got a rose growing.

That’s about essence of life as well.

After I read, I think, ‘The Inner Workings of Tennis’,

you know, it talked about growing a flower

and growing the rose, how frustrating it could be

to shape a craft or hone your skills.

When you’re growing a Rose garden

you don’t scream at the roses,

you’re not frustrated with them, it doesn’t help them grow.

And that’s the same kind of principle I applied

to honing my craft in basketball, you know?

Not to be too frustrated with myself,

and not to berate myself too much,

not to be down on myself, and just allow it

to grow naturally and beautifully.

On the other calf, I got a Marine.

My grandpa was a Marine and he fought in the Korean War,

so it’s a tribute to him.

I got this one on my ankle too, this one’s dope,

this one is one of my favorite ones.

It’s shoes hanging over a telephone wire,

but the telephone wire’s a heartbeat.

It just reminds me that, you know,

basketball will end too, but my life will still go on.

And it’s just about not about taking things too serious.

So, my most recent tattoo is

black power fist, black equality, black lives matter fist.

It’s just holding a scale, you know, the scale of justice.

It’s growing roots down through the bottom.

Kind of remind me to be an activist in this world

and how necessary it is to be activist in America

because the yin and yang of the Dao,

essentially it’s a very pacifist religion,

and a pacifist symbol.

As I’m getting older, I understand the necessity

for more activists in America to create justice

and to create balance and equality.

I got the drippy piece on,

I thought that one was just fun to have.

It was dope.

I got a couple of chess pieces on my thigh,

I got the king, I got the pawn and I got the knight.

I’m a real big fan of chess and all the principles

that chess can teach you.

Not to make a move unless it’s protected.

Think two, three moves ahead.

Understand that there’s a beginning, middle and endgame.

The only thing that’s off limits is probably just my face,

that’s probably it, I’ll probably end up doing my hands.

‘Cause I already got the back of my neck,

and I got the King’s crown over there,

it sits on top of the all seeing eye.

That reminds me that there is no thing

that governor’s higher than the all seeing

and the all being, and the almighty, so.

Clean and fill everything, I’ll probably just

leave my chest, my stomach open, but for the most part

I’ll just get tatted everything except my face,

maybe leave my neck out.

I waited a long time to get tattooed anyways

’cause I wanted to make sure I found the right artist,

found the right artwork, so.

I mean, I have plenty of time to get tatted.