(Visual China / Photo)
Recently, the General Administration of Sport issued a "tattoo ban" that triggered heated discussions on the Internet.
The General Administration of Sport said on its official website that the Chinese Football Association has revised the "Measures for the Management of National Team Athletes of the Chinese Football Association", in order to enable Chinese football players to fully set a social example and show a good mental outlook, the national team and U23 national team athletes are strictly prohibited from having new tattoos.
Those who have tattoos are advised to remove their tattoos on their own, and if there are special circumstances, they must cover the tattoos during training and competition after the consent of the team; the U20 national team and the following national teams at all levels are strictly prohibited from recruiting athletes with tattoos.
The General Administration of Sport is not the first time to issue a tattoo ban for athletes, as early as 2019, the "National Athlete Code of Conduct" made a clear provision that national athletes are prohibited from tattooing on the body, and the recent tattoo ban on national football has only refined this norm.
In fact, in addition to football players, many athletes in other fields have tattoos on their bodies, such as national athletes Zhang Jike, Li Na, Lin Dan, Zheng Zhi and so on. When the athlete tattoo ban was not promulgated, it was enough to cover the tattoo during the competition by default, and now the threshold for young athletes to be tattooed is equal to missing the national team, which has caused a lot of controversy.
History of tattoo development and change
The word tattoo is derived from the indigenous language "talu" in Tahiti, the Pacific Islands, and the English name "tattoo" is derived from talu, which is a culture in which indigenous peoples engrave totem worship on their bodies.
In times of very low productivity, people worship the talents of animals - the speed of cheetahs, the strength of elephants, the might of lions... The animal pattern engraved on the flesh pins on people's hopes for xeno energy.
In many cultures, tattoos are a symbol of social class and status. Ancient Egypt used tattoos to divide social status, and in the Polynesian ethnic group, the more noble the identity, the more beautiful the tattoo.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once said that "a person without a tattoo is not a good origin", and this culture was introduced to Europe in the post-maritime era and was used in religious ceremonies in the early days.
In ancient China, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, tattoos have long existed as a punishment called "黥" or "ink", usually tattooed on the faces of mortals as a means of punishment. The ancients paid attention to "the skin of the body, the parents, do not dare to destroy", compared with other punishments, the tattoo on the body is covered with a layer of humiliation.
Although the appeasement of the Tang and Song dynasties was still in full swing, there was a tattoo culture aimed at highlighting individual consciousness. In the Song Dynasty, tattoos were called jinti, and at one time there was a tattoo place called "Jinti Society".
"Water Margin" has Yun Luzhi deeply pierced with large flowers, Shi Jin carved nine dragons to obtain the nickname "Nine Dragons", and the prodigal son Yan Qing was even more tattooed, known as "If you are a jinti, who you are, you will lose to him". The impression of a large tattoo tattoo = a "fierce fighting" has remained in people's minds ever since.
Then in the 1990s, film and television works depicting street culture such as "Ancient Puzzle Boy" swept Through Asia, and zuo qinglong and right white tiger Suzaku Xuanwu painted all over the body became the standard of the underworld.
Tattoos seem to be a symbol of gang cohesion, because once the tattoo is attached and removed, it will be very difficult, and the process of making a tattoo is also painful, and this pain is like a ritual of determination and commitment.
This decorative totem with the meaning of "eternity" is given the connotation of "loyalty", so tattoos and hooligans are always inseparable from social cognition.
(Visual China / Photo)
Why athletes love tattoos
In Eastern cultures, people always feel that tattoos usually only appear on heretical groups on the margins of society, after all, most of them are not serious people who are like walking murals.
However, if we look closely, we will find that many athletes are tattoo lovers. Such as the world-renowned sports superstars Messi, Neymar, Beckham, Lin Dan, Li Na, Zhang Jike, etc. with oriental cultural background, why do decent and well-trained athletes favor tattoos?
Lin Dan is a famous tattoo artist in the Chinese sports world, and he has a total of five tattoos on his body - the back neck tattoo "LD" represents the clothing career after retirement; the right arm tattoo "FF" is the abbreviation of his wife Xie Xingfang; the "until the end of the world" on the right arm writes his love for the stadium; the "five stars" on the outside of the left arm represent the world badminton grand slam; and the cross on the left hand represents the Christian grandmother.
Lin Dan's tattoo condenses career, love, and family affection, and engraves a totem with a strong symbolic meaning on his body not only to commemorate, but also to inspire.
Athletes' careers are often accompanied by extremely high-intensity training and tense mental pressure at all times, and people often need strong beliefs as a supporting motivation in a long-term high-pressure state, and family and career are undoubtedly the best source of motivation. Turning invisible beliefs into figurative tattoo moments to motivate oneself is in part driven by the need for athletes' professional nature.
In addition to Lin Dan and Cai Yun, the tattooed badminton players of Ming Zhi, at the moment when Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng reached the olympic final in the 2008 Olympic Games, Cai Yun quickly took off his shirt and spread his arms behind the camera to show the wild tattoo "Face of adversity" behind him.
After the game, Cai Yun revealed that because of the bad state in the first half of the year and the repeated defeats, he decided to get a tattoo to remind himself to hold his breath to vent at the Olympic Games.
In addition to strength skills and competitive spirit, belief and psychological comfort may be far more important to athletes than we think.
Tattoos are only one of the carriers of the athletes' beliefs, and the large gold chain of the flying man Bolt on the field, Zhang Jike's jade pendant, and the stickers printed with the word China on the arms of the women's volleyball girls all carry the faith and comfort of the athletes. As the famous football commentator Li Chengpeng said: Chinese athletes should have their own tattoos, not necessarily on the skin and flesh.
In addition, football, basketball and other sports that have a lot of physical contact and are more confrontational, the phenomenon of athlete tattoos is more extensive than that of badminton, table tennis and other tennis players.
In the fierce frontal confrontation like war, such athletes are more keen on tattoos that show manhood, in order to convey the message of "I am strong" to the opponent and play a psychological suppression effect. The fierceness of the tattoo in the hearts of some players plays the role of self-esteem +100, force +100, and action +100 in minutes.
Although tattoos can be used as a spiritual symbol to give athletes inspiration to a certain extent, it is also obvious that tattoos are harmful to the skin, and even damage the athlete's athletic function to a certain extent.
According to the study of Ingo Frovese, a professor at the Sports University of Cologne in Germany, 60%-70% of the ink used in tattoos will penetrate from the skin to the blood vessels, affecting blood circulation in the body, and a wide range of tattoos will even hinder the sweating function and body temperature regulation function of the skin. Therefore, as an athlete, you should carefully consider the possible harm before tattooing.
Tattoos can carry faith is not false, but it is the most important thing to put the faith into practice, like the athlete who takes the lover into his arms with the arm tattooed with the name of the lover, it will only be in vain.
Similarly, the national football team, nicknamed "low blood pressure special medicine", is also more than the tattooed dragon to scare people.
Chen Feiyi Si Gui