Best football tattoo? Nicolas Otamendi's incredible Breaking Bad & Peaky Blinders design
Nicolas Otamendi loves a tattoo.
Like many top-class footballers and people in general, the Benfica defender likes to express sides to his personality and passions by way of his appearance.
Otamendi cuts an instantly-recognisable figure in the beautiful game with his muscly physique, finely-groomed beard and, of course, his tattoos practically feeling like trademarks at this point.
Otamendi’s passion for tattoos
And it’s in those permanent, inked illustrations on Otamendi’s body that you can see some of the finest examples of tattoos that we’ve ever seen on a footballer.
From deeply personal tattoos that have great meaning to him and his family to interesting designs that he just happens to fancy, Otamendi certainly has a passion for the popular body art.
Speaking to the Independent in 2016, Otamendi explained: “I started to let the beard grow at Valencia and I just liked it, so since then, it has become a big part of my personality, just like those tattoos.
“People always ask me about them. I had my first done when I was 14 and each one has some significance to it. My brother and my children are on there, and the face of my grandfather too. Most are personal, but if I see a design which catches my eye, I will go for it.
“At the moment there is one I am looking at which will be football related, but I need to find the correct place to have it on my body.”
“Mancester United sign Tyrell Malacia✍️” (Football Terrace)
Otamendi’s incredible back tattoo
But of all the tattoos that Otamendi has shown off on a football pitch, there are perhaps none that can possibly compare to the pop-culture-related masterpiece on the upper half of his back.
In 2019, the former Manchester City man went viral for displaying a large tattoo that featured illustrations from the television shows Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders and Vikings.
There are no less than two images of Walter White, the main character in Breaking Bad, alongside a depiction of Cillian Murphy’s Thomas Shelby and what appears to be Ragnar Lothbrok.
All in all, it makes for one of the most remarkable tattoos in all of football, so we just couldn’t resist putting it back in front of the world’s eyes one more time – check it out for yourself down below:
Farewell Nicolas Otamendi.
— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JackPittBrooke) September 28, 2020
Premier League titles: two.
Tattoos of Walter White: two. pic.twitter.com/u6aVwJzQry
Nicolas Otamendi's tattoo featuring Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders and the Vikings pictured after the Atalanta game.
— City Report (@cityreport_) November 7, 2019
[via @MailSport] pic.twitter.com/tbHMVjtoGX
Superb.
Ink-redible design
The detail truly is stunning and the nature of the characters drawn out certainly adds to the hard-man image that, rightfully or wrongly, is so often attached to Otamendi.
And while that’s not a completely unfounded narrative given his proclivity for crunching tackles, perhaps the tattoos and beard unfairly perpetuate an unconscious image about Otamendi the person.
Then again, if you’re walking around with a gun-touting Birmingham gangster inked on your back, then you can perhaps cut fans who think Otamendi is your stereotypical tough guy a little bit of slack.
Either way, though, we just happen to think that it’s one of the ink-redible tattoos in football. I’ll see myself out…