Earliest visible tattoos in baseball cards
 

The smiles thread made me want to post this. I’ve been wanting to do research on this but honestly have no idea where to start.

I’m curious about the earliest visible tattoo on a baseball card. I imagine it’s fairly recent; Justin Miller of the Marlins was made to cover his up in the early 2000s and most of his cards show long sleeves. But is it possible there are earlier cards showing a tattoo, maybe of someone who had recently returned from a Navy deployment?

I am not sure if it is a recurring print defect but it looks like a 1952 Bowman Sam Mele has a tattoo.

Not baseball, but this T218 of Deshler is an early sports card that shows a tattoo.

Brian

Wow, that sure looks like a tat to me!

Tom Sharkey, the boxer, had a very visible chest tattoo. He probably has a card showing his.

Great thread. Looks like Bob Lemke asked this same question in 2011:
http://boblemke.blogspot.com/2011/01...ball-card.html

His answer: 1952 Bowman Sam Mele

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cV5cKJjAdz...0/52B+Mele.jpg

I think you are right. There's a photo of Mele and Red Shoendienst when they were managers and the tat is visible. Almost all his other cards/photos have undershirts or are close ups. His 64 Topps card has a hint of it as well, but it isn't clear.

Mele was in the V-12 Navy League during WWII in the Pacific Theater. It would be logical to have received a tattoo at that time.

I would think that tattoos were somewhat common with the players that served, but maybe not as visible as Sams.

They actually toned down Deshler's tattoo for his card.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...VV3L2zIyqw6Z4s

What about the E90-1 Jackson card, does the lip they tattooed on him count?

Interesting and different topic. I hope there are more posts with pics.

So I guess here is maybe a more interesting question. What was the second card to depict a tattoo? Is it possible we went nearly half a century without one?

This is such an unusual topic that it would neat to see ANY pre-1960 sport card that has the person with a tattoo. It's definitely not unusual these days.

This is a great idea for a thread. Hope to see more like it.

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In terms of modern cards, I remember Puckett has a tattoo visible on his 1991 UD card.

good memory....
 

Here it is with a few others.....

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