Xavier Moon: "My tattoos is my family, people who passed away"

Zenit guard Xavier Moon told about his tattoos in the "Show me your tattoo" programme. The newcomer of the blue-whites opened the veil of secrecy and shared the meaning of each of his tattoos.

— Xavier, we’re glad to see you. Let’s talk about tattoos for a while. First question, how many tattoos do you have in total? Did you count them?

— I don’t even know. I can’t tell you right now.

— You can’t?

— I don’t know. I don’t know how many I got.

— Do you remember that day when you decided to make one? What were you thinking about? What ideas came to your mind when you thought about your first tattoo?

— I was a kid. I wasn’t even supposed to be getting tattoos at 14, 15. That’s when I got my first one. I was with my uncle, and he was getting a tattoo, and I told him I wanted to get one too. So, he signed the permission slip for me to get my first one. I was going through a folder of pictures, and I just picked one I liked, and that was my first tattoo.

— Do you remember how your relatives saw it? What was their reaction?

— They didn’t know for a while. I hide it for a while, but once they found out, nobody said nothing for real.

— Can you show us the first one?

— I actually got it covered up a couple months ago, so I currently don’t have my first tattoo (laughs).

— Just in your memories?

— Yeah, that’s it.

— What does this one symbolize?

— So it’s for my stepdad, it’s a skull with a cardinal on top of it. When my stepdad passed away, my mom always sees cardinals, the red bird. So I got this on top of a skull, symbolizing death, but it’s also symbolizing me remembering him. And then I got the cardinal here too. So I’ll probably get one more because she always sees them in threes. But that’s what that symbolizes.

— And can you please tell us what is written on your left hand?

— This is Rest In Peace ECW, which is Elbert Clyde Wilson. That’s my stepdad. So obviously this is all for him. And then obviously I’ll be adding some more to it. But yeah, that’s for my stepdad.

— Some people prefer colored tattoos, some just black tattoos. Which do you like more? Maybe you will have more colored tattoos in the future. What is the difference between these?

— It’s really no difference, it just depends on what the tattoo is, it’ll depend on if it has color or not, but me, I actually like color, some people don’t like color, like I might go back and get the leaves colored in here, but I don’t have a preference. So this is the day that my dad was born, August 24, 1966. And then this is the day he died April 20 of 2016.

— Deepest condolences, Xavier.

— Thank you.

— Let’s talk about your right hand.

— So I got this when I was in college. This is actually for my uncle, my mom and my uncle’s dad, my granddad, I call him my papa. So I just got a scroll here and it says, I am with you in spirit. And then I got the clouds in the background. Angels, I have a couple of angels here. A rosary. And then I have the date that he died, August 29, 2012. And then here I have his name. I have the hands are like this with a heart in it. And I have his name, John. His name was John Curtis Moon. And then I have the Mayflower on my elbow, because he was born in May. So, the whole lower half of my arm is dedicated to my papa.

— We can see a brand new tattoo on your neck…

— This is my lady. This is my girlfriend, Olivia. Yeah, she came here, so I got her name tattooed on my…I actually got it here. So, I found a good tattoo artist here, so I’ll probably be getting more.

— What was her reaction to this?

— Obviously, she loves it.

— Do you think you’ll make more tattoos here in Russia?

— Absolutely. Yeah, I found a good artist. Me and Dwayne actually found the same artist. So, whenever we get some time off, hopefully next month.

— Dwayne said that he might make a tattoo with Zenit BC symbol. Will you make one?

— I haven’t done any with club’s symbols. So I can’t say that I’ll do that. I don’t know yet.

— And do you think that tattoo is a mandatory element for the basketball player?

— No, I know a lot of guys who don’t have tattoos. Once I got my first tattoo, then it just started to become a thing. And then you just kind of figure out what you want to put on your body. Most of my stuff is my family, people who passed away. It’s in memory of a lot of people. I got the name of my city on my back. I have a matching tattoo with my sister. Like so everything I have is pretty much meaningful to me but a lot of people don’t prefer it but I do so that’s why I do it.