Open Water Swimming Tattoos

Watch an NBA game and it is rare to find a player without tattoos. But most open water swimmers leave their skin unadorned with the exception of sunscreen, Vaseline and lanolin.

However, there are swimmers with a number of ocean-specific tattoos.

If you have an open water swimming tattoo, please send us a photo to add to this gallery of open water art.

Brazilian open water swimmer Glauco Rangel has a large swordfish and Chad Ho celebrates his Olympic 10K participation.

Jeri Sisco of Washington has a colorful sea turtle tattoo on her ankle tattoo as a memorial of sorts for her husband.





Sebastian Fischer said, "I have a mermaid tattood on my left arm. I have always loved swimming and being in the water. And I have also always loved women, so I decided to combine those two things for a tattoo on my arm."







World 5K and 10K champion and Swimming World Magazine's Open Water Swimmer of the Year Thomas Lurz explains his tattoo, "I have the date from my father's birthday on my left arm. I got it after his death. The tattoo [on the other arm] we did 12 years ago on our swim team for the German team championships and it means 'Together we can do it' or 'We are strong together'. For example, my brother has the same tattoo on the same place because he also was on the team at this time as a swimmer. Now he is my coach, so it still fits good together. We were a good young team then."

Upper photo from the Outside Magazine.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association