Tale of My Tattoo

HINES WARD Receiver

Above the image of Mickey Mouse in the Heisman pose on Ward's right arm is his name in Korean. "I got [the tattoo] in high school," says the Steelers' alltime receptions leader, who was raised in Georgia, but whose mother, Kim, is from Seoul, South Korea. "Mickey Mouse symbolizes fun. You never see him sad, and that's how I approach life. When things are bad, I smile sometimes. People tease me about it, but that's my approach -- a happy guy playing football."

KENDALL SIMMONS Guard

After completing his rookie season three years ago, Simmons had the NFL shield inked onto his right shoulder, along with the phrase WILL OVER SKILL. "To make an [NFL] team, go through a year and survive.... It was a reward type thing," says the 2002 first-round pick of why he got the tattoo. "The phrase will over skill I got from my offensive-line coach at Auburn. That was our motto. We're not the most skilled position on the team, but we're going to give more effort than anyone else."

IKE TAYLOR Cornerback

Taylor has a scale in the middle of his back with CORA, his mother's name, written vertically below it. "I just try to balance it out with my mom," says Taylor, 25. "She'll be there for me, and I'll be there for her." It wasn't the first tat Taylor got of his mom's name -- he had CORA inked on his side when he was an eighth-grader and living near New Orleans. "[My mom said] 'What are you doing?'" Taylor recalls. "I said, 'I put your name on me.' She said, 'I don't approve, but there's nothing I can do.'"

Photographs by Mike Fabus/SI

Issue date: January 16, 2006