"Each one means something different to me": Levi Randolph about his tattoos

Today, February 23, it was announced that Levi Randolph is leaving Zenit. The Blue-White-Sky Blues are publishing an interview that was recorded earlier. In the new episode of the "Show me your tattoo" programme", Levi explained the meaning of some of his tattoos.

— Do you remember when you got your first tattoo?

— My first tattoo probably was taken when I think I was 15 years old, maybe 16. My dad and my godfather took me to get my first one. I always wanted to express my style, I always had a personality that I want to show and I don't know, Allen Iverson was my favorite player growing up and he had tattoos so. I always wanted one as well.

— How many tattoos do you have? Have you ever counted them?

— No actually. I don't really know. I haven't counted, it's all kind of turned into one big collage, so I'm not sure how many I actually have.

— You have a lot of Christian tattoos, crosses on your arms and on your stomach, why is that so important for you?

— A lot of principles that you can live by it's the foundation of my childhood you know going to church with my family and just learning different things about life through, through the Bible and i think that's kind of you know what stuck with me is something that's very important. It's the basis of everything.

— You have a clock tattoo on your chest, why did you choose such an unusual clock?

— The clock for me symbolizes patience. We always rush. We always think about time. We always think we have too much time or we don't have enough time. So I think the clock for me is just it symbolizes patience. Don't live your life by the timer, live your life at your own pace. Stay in your lane that type of thing. So my everything that I have as far as numbers or clocks or I also have dice it's on number nine. My best friend passed away when I was a junior in college, and his favorite number was 9.

That's the number he wore in sports, when he played football, that was his lucky number. So, everything that I have as far as a number is on the number 9. I mean, I want to stick with my number also.

You know, I thought about it. I thought about it for a while. But I just kept my number 20.

— Also, you have the tattoo of someone's face on your chest. Is it someone close to you?

— No, it's just an angel, representing love. It can be depicted in many different ways in the Bible. Mary Magdalene, just different things throughout Christianity which you find in this picture, but for me it just represents love.

— And you have a very large tattoo on your back. Tell me more about it.

— The one on my back, it was probably the biggest piece that I got, the longest. It's just Jesus, you know, standing there with doves flying around. To me, it symbolizes faith. You know, the quote underneath is, let your faith be bigger than your fears. And so for me, it's just taking the next step without being able to see the staircase type of thing.

It's like believing and trusting. And the ultimate trust is, believing in Jesus, believing in God because we don't see, we can't see him, but we have to be able to feel him and understand that he has us at all times and so that's what the tattoo on my back represents. For me, every tattoo means something.

I mean, everyone is something different. I have a tattoo here, Mind Over Matter. I think that, for my career, has been very important to me. It's been something that's helped me throughout the process. You know, no matter what happens, no matter how big the obstacle may be, you can overcome it by just putting your mind to it. So, every tattoo means something different to me.

— Do you think tattoos are a compulsory element in basketball?

— No, I have brothers who don’t have tattoos. I don’t think that it’s for everyone. I don't think they're for everybody, if you want one you may think about what you want and then take time before you get it but they're not for everybody

— Do all players need to have tattoos?

— I see it a lot here you know, Sergey Karasev has a lot of tattoos, we have a few other guys with tattoos. I think it just expresses who you are.

You express yourself through your artwork on your body. It shows a form of commitment to be able to sit there and go through that pain every time. To commit to having something permanent on you. So, I respect it.

— And how many more tattoos are you planning to get?

— I don't know, I got space, I got my arms, I got a leg, I got some small spaces on my body. So I really don't know. When I get the urge and I really think about what I want, then I go get one.

— Are you planning to make a tattoo on your face?

— No, I can't do that. My mom she would kill me that would be that would be my last tattoo if i got a tattoo on my face. My mom told me she said no hands no neck no face, so i respect her and i won't be doing those things.

— Tell us about the tattoo on your leg.

— Well, this one is just more so… it represents a lot of like. I'll just tell you the message. People who died yesterday have plans for this morning. So it's almost like don't wait, you know. You don't know if you have tomorrow. You don't know what's next in your life. So do it now, because everybody who died at some point had plans, you know, for the next day.

— So it's your personal motive, right?

— Yeah, it's like, go for it, you know, don't wait. If you have goals, set them and go for those goals. Don't sit there and just wait on them, because everyone has plans, you know. Like I said, everyone who died yesterday had plans for this morning. So go ahead and accomplish your goal. So here I just have a lot of like skulls, dead trees, things like that, graveyard. And then on the back, I have hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. And it's an old saying. I mean, you can look it up. A lot of people know that one. Comes in many different forms with the mummies or sometimes they do monkeys or different things where they have disrepresentation.

I mean, I don't know, it's just how I was feeling. It's something I thought about. It's not, it's not anything that's not common this saying, you know, it's just a common saying, go for it. That's pretty much it, don't wait. Everyone has plans, but you can't sit on your plans. You got to really put things into motion because one day it'll be too late. You won't have any more time.