What is it with footballers and tattoos?Like moths to a flame, most of them can’t keep themselves out of tattoo parlours these days.Footballers without tattoos like Cristiano Ronaldo, N’Golo Kante and Mohamed Salah are becoming an increasingly rare species.Only bad boys used to get tattoos but that’s obviously changed in recent years.Even the clean-cut Lionel Messi is now covered in tattoos. His entire left leg has been inked up.

And that brings us on to the point of this article: taking a closer look at players guilty of getting the worst tattoos in football.

A new player added his name to the list this week: Burnley goalkeeper Joe Hart.

The former England No. 1 has shown off his new ‘armour tattoo’ which covers his right shoulder and the lower half of his arm.

One cruel journalist tweeted a rather funny joke after seeing it: “I see Joe Hart has got himself a tattoo that charts his career trajectory over the last few years.”

Ouch.

Although we’ve already picked on Messi by mentioning his leg tattoo...

...we can’t let the Barcelona legend get away the lips tattoo that’s situated in a rather intimate part of his body.

It’s apparently meant to symbolise how he will always have his wife’s kiss with him wherever he goes, which is actually quite sweet, to be fair. Still, bit odd.

At least he didn’t get his own surname tattoos on his head like Nile Ranger…

Ryan Mason, who was sadly forced to retire last year, has an even worse tattoo than Ranger’s on his right arm.

After spotting the tattoo - which is presumably of Mason’s poor mum - one lad on Twitter asked: ‘Why does Ryan Mason have a tattoo of [me] when I was 12??????’

Fear not, though, Ryan. There’s always a footballer with a worse tattoo than you.

KV Mechelen's Uros Vitas got his wife's face put on his torso and, well, just look at the state of it.

Let’s just hope he never gets divorced.

Jay Bothroyd’s tattoo of various weapons, including guns and grenades, spelling out ‘Love’ is arguably even worse than Vitas’s.

Why did he think that was a good idea?

And why did Leroy Sane think it was a good idea to get a tattoo of himself celebrating a Manchester City goal against AS Monaco?

Similarly perplexing is Alberto Moreno’s monkey-with-glasses-holding-a-gun tattoo on his thigh.

I mean…

Sergio Ramos apparently has a hand underneath all of these tattoos.

The 35 and 32 represent shirt numbers he’s worn during his career, while he was 19 when he made his Spain debut. Answers on a postcode for what the 90 means.

The Real Madrid star's back tattoo is a bit much, too.

Artur Boruc’s tattoo on his belly is a bit, erm, unfortunate.

He must have lost a bet with his mates, it’s the only explanation.

John Stones has a tattoo of Barnsley legend Norman Rimmington, who passed away aged 93 in December, and an unidentified old woman on his leg.

Manchester City and Brazil goalkeeper Ederson has a yellow smiley face behind his left ear.

Neymar has a pretty big tattoo of his sister on his arm.

Dele Alli has Bamm-Bamm Rubble from the Flintstones on his left forearm.

On a similar theme, Alberto Gilardino has Peppa Pig on his left arm.

Peppa Pig is one of the better kids’ TV shows, to be fair.

Daniele De Rossi has a “tackle hazard” sign tattooed on his calf.

This article wouldn’t be complete without Mario Balotelli’s Genghis Khan quote tattoo.

And finally, not a footballer but Mark Clattenburg has tattoos of Euro 2016 and the Champions League to remind him that he refereed both finals.