Tanner Houck explains why he has the Red Sox logo tattooed on his spine
The Red Sox pitcher and former first-round pick talks tattoos.
Baseball:
Tanner Houck has the word “Believe” spelled out on his spine in the Red Sox’ font, with the “B” being the team’s logo, according to MassLive’s Christopher Smith.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound right-handed pitcher reportedly got his first tattoo at age 17. It reads “Veni. Vidi. Vici,” which translates to “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Not long after, Hauck got another tattoo when he was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 12th round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of high school.
He played college baseball at Missouri instead of signing with Toronto but commemorated the event by getting the round, pick number, team name, and year tattooed (RD12 PK354 Blue Jays ’14) on his wrist, MassLive reports.
Three years later, in 2017, the Red Sox selected Houck in the first round with the 24th overall pick.
Hauck said that he gets tattoos to document the progression of his life.
“Those are two of the biggest moments of my life, especially in my career,” Hauck told MassLive. “It’s moments you don’t want to forget. You want to embrace those things. I know some people have their own opinions on tattoos. I like to look at moments like that and why not? It’s a significant part of who you are as a person. Without getting drafted the first time, I wouldn’t have learned the process. And I wanted to push myself to be better than what I was.”
Hauck said he wants his entire body covered in tattoos, except for the parts that are visible when he wears a suit.
“My rule is basically if I can put a suit on, you would have no idea,” he told the outlet. “I think it’s more of, if I put on a suit, you look respectable. The older generations were typically never really a fan of tattoos. I know obviously nowadays it’s not as big of a deal. But for me, I still want to look presentable … if I ever do put on a suit.”
In addition to the “Believe” tattoo, Hauck said he has a Red Sox sleeve on his left arm. He also has the MLB logo tattooed above the “Believe” tattoo. When asked if he’ll get another MLB team’s tattoo if he ever leaves Boston, Hauck told MassLive:
“No. I think for me, those (Blue Jays and Red Sox tattoos) were just like the two moments. It’s not really about a team thing. It’s more of a moment thing. Something symbolic to me and the history of like, ‘this is me.’ I’ll be able to tell my kids one day, ‘Your dad was cool at one point.’”
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