Anthony Davis entered the league in 2012 with no tattoos. A 2013 article in the Miami Herald listed him among a handful of young players with no tattoos "(John Wall, Brandon Knight, Kenneth Faried, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook)" as evidence that "the tattoo fad in the NBA might be fading." Faried is no longer in the league, and of the remaining five players, more than half now have tattoos: Wall, Griffin, and of course Davis, who came into the 2015 season with two tattoos on his right arm.
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On February 1, 2020, six days after Kobe Bryant's death, artist Vanessa Aurelia posted the above photos to her instagram account - a new tattoo in progress for Davis, and the finished design, a tribute to Bryant. A week later, during a video interview with Dave McMenamin for ESPN, Davis spoke about his relationship with Bryant and the decision behind the tattoo. Confirming that this was the first time he'd gotten a tattoo mid-season, Davis described the urgency behind the decision:
"Every tattoo on me is meaningful. When I first got, even before I got in the league, I went to the USA team and Kobe was the first guy that talked to me, that I hung out with. I was Kobe's guy! It's like, 'I'm taking you under my wing' . . . he was the first guy that I kind of fell into with basketball. He showed me how to be professional, showed me how it's work, how to look professional."
Davis went on to specifically talk about the tattoo:
“It’s just crazy how I’m here now playing for the Lakers, where he built his legacy on the floor, so I thought it was something to honor him and always remember the times that we had and how I really got started in the NBA life."
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Davis has a portrait of his grandfather tattooed on his right arm. In a profile posted to the New Orleans Pelicans website in 2015, Davis spoke about his longstanding desire to honor his grandfather, who died in 2010, in this way:
“I always said I wanted to get a tattoo of my grandfather when I was in high school,” Davis said. “But when he passed, it just solidified that I was going to do it. I didn’t want to put anything on my body that’s whatever, like a TV or something (meaningless). I wanted it to be meaningful. I was scared at first when I was younger, but I thought one day I’d get one. When he passed, I said, ‘I’m definitely doing it.’ I just never had time to. I’ve had so much stuff: the Olympics, college, coming here to New Orleans, so much going on. This was the first summer where I had really nothing (major) to do.”
