Tale of My Tattoo

KEVIN MENCH
Rangers Leftfielder
GROWING UP in Newark, Del., Mench was a rabid Eagles fan. In 2004 he got the team's logo inked above an existing barbed-wire tat on his left biceps. "I got it because everybody lost faith in them," says Mench, who attended the '04 Super Bowl in Jacksonville. "Our trainer Jaime Reed said he lost faith. So when I go into the training room, I point to [the tattoo] and say, 'There you go, Jay-mo.'"

DMITRI YOUNG
Tigers DH
LAST SUMMER Young was in Boston, out with his pal, then Red Sox shortstop Pokey Reese, when he got introduced to a tattoo artist through a mutual friend. "At the time I only had six or seven tattoos," recalls Young, 31. "The guy came over to my hotel room with all his stuff. I had him do the flames reversed. That way, when I hit a home run and turn my arms as I go around the bases, I've got the flames coming up."

WILLIE HARRIS
White Sox Second Baseman
HE HAS an eclectic mix of tattoos, highlighting his dedication to his family and his faith in God. "Everything is something that I either love or that inspires me," says Harris, 27. He has, among other things, the names of his daughter, Arianna, and mother, Lene, and a tiger on his left arm. "That's kind of the way I am, the way I go about the game," he says. "Like with the eye of the tiger, always go hard."

TWO COLOR PHOTOS

BRAD MANGIN (MENCH)

FOUR COLOR PHOTOS

RON VESELY (YOUNG AND HARRIS)

COLOR ILLUSTRATION

EDITION