“The ‘Heart of Gold’ tattoo is new. I just wanted something special on the left side of my chest instead of my right. I have a heart, man – in sports and in life. Whatever it is, especially in sports, people think it’s how fast you are, and it’s not about that. It’s about having heart,” he says. “Doing the right things for people and just having a heart of gold. My tattoos are very meaningful for me. I think that anything someone gets should be meaningful to them. People should be conscious of the work they get. Don’t get something that in 40 or 50 years they might regret and look at it and be like, ‘Why did I get that?’ You know, if you got something that resembles you or your personality or the things you went through in your life, I don’t think you’ll ever regret it.”
Recently within the sporting world, Cam Newton, No. 1 draft pick of the Carolina Panthers, was pressured by his team owner not to get any tattoos or piercings in order to project a more clean cut image. This proclamation made national news and was highly criticized amongst players and the tattoo community. “People and athletes should be able to do what they want with their own body,” Merriman said in response. “We’ll see every year you play sports and [how] different things happen [that] inspire new work and ways to express yourself. Through the events and emotions that we go through in sports, and in any walk of life, you get different feelings and can translate them into new work – for me or for any player.”
Whether on the football field or in the shop chair, Shawne Merriman is genuine and dedicated to the tasks that lie ahead of him. It will be challenging for him to return to a new team in a tough division, trying to recreate that swagger that once made him one of the most feared linebackers in the NFL. But “Lights Out” is up to the challenge.
