How can you not love the NBA? On the same day that Tyrese Maxey blessed us with a historic, season-saving performance at Madison Square Garden, one of the Association's other young stars made some off-court headlines. LaMelo Ball’s new back tattoo is one of the most insane things we’ve ever seen.
Where do we even begin? There’s the shoutout to his clothing label, LaFrance, etched on a UFO on his neck. There’s the giant “RARE ONE” lettering in two different fonts covering half of his back. The crosses on his elbows. The giant alien head. Love it or hate it, you can’t help but be impressed by the time and energy that went into executing this.
We certainly were. So we decided to reach out to the tattoo artist who was responsible for Ball’s ridiculous backpiece. Los Angeles-based artist Herchell Carrasco is Ball’s go-to tattoo guy. Carrasco needed a bit of help to complete the big project in such a short amount of time. In total, six different artists helped put it together: Carrasco, Jorge Garibay, Niz Carillo, Elvis Ramos, Juan Nambo, and Jonas Aguila. It took three six-hour sessions across three consecutive days (and a lot of No Numbing lidocaine cream) to execute. While he wouldn’t give the exact cost, Carrasco tells Complex that the piece was in the ballpark of $20,000. Even though we are all just seeing this tattoo now, it was completed a few weeks ago.
“What Melo got done in three days takes some people years to get,” Carrasco tells Complex.
Carassco is a 14-year veteran in the tattoo industry. He’s operated Pachuco Tattoo in Orange, California since 2011. Large-scale, black and grey tattoos like this one are his specialty. Other high-profile clients have included Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma and Ball's older brothers LiAngelo and Lonzo. All of Ball’s tattoos are courtesy of Carrasco’s shop. The first ones were “Fear” and “God” written across his wrists in 2020. Others have included a LaFrance “LF” logo on his neck and angel wings on his chest. As you can see from his most recent work, Ball’s gotten pretty addicted to new ink. Most of his body is covered.
“When he first started getting tattooed, he only mentioned getting a couple tattoos. But I'll be honest, I never believed him, says Carrasco. “Everybody always says that they're only going to get a couple tattoos and they end up covered, sometimes more covered than I am.”
For more about Ball's back piece, check out our full conversation with Carrasco, below.
via Herchell Carrasco
So this back piece for LaMelo that we've been seeing all over our timelines, what is the process that goes into something like that?
We've actually been communicating while he was in Charlotte, so he texted me with this idea about four months ago. He throws me all his ideas and it's a collaborative project. I'm really trying to give him everything that he wants, but a lot of times there's things that really aren't realistic or don't work. I'll usually give my opinion on things, but ultimately it's his tattoo. So, it was a lot of back and forth. Once he gave me his main ideas, I'm the one that really brought it to life. I went through about six or seven drafts for this design.
I thought we were going to schedule this in the summertime. So when he contacted me a month ago, like, ‘I'm ready,’ that caught me by surprise. So I quickly put together a team of my friends. The guys that helped me execute this tattoo are all guys that either work with me or I've known them and they're friends of mine.
Once the design was ready, I printed huge printouts and mapped it out on his back a few days before to make sure all the sizing was right.
Can you explain the multiple artists part of that? Is that typical of big pieces like this? Are you guys all sort of tattooing sections at once?
It was rare that we were all working at the same time, but we're all there and available. I think at one point we had maybe four artists all working at the same time. But this isn't normal. It is just because of limited time. I didn't want to spend too many hours on him at once. I just really was trying to get it done in the shortest amount of sessions possible. And that's with the help of numbing cream. I've never seen it done without numbing cream or anesthesia.
At any point, were you trying to scale this tattoo down?
Definitely. He wanted a lot more than this and I really had to tell him like, ‘Hey Melo, this is really the max that we can do.’ I do this every day. So, sometimes [the clients] don't know what's doable in a certain timeframe.
Can you talk about the theme of the tattoo that we see?
One of my signature styles is the black and grey with red. He wanted to keep that theme throughout his whole body. The “RARE,” he has that done several times [across his body]. I'll tell him like, ‘Hey, normally people don't do this,’ but Melo's the type of guy that doesn't want what everybody has. He likes to break the rules. At the end of the day, I gave him what he wanted and he loves it. That's really what matters.
Is there anything that got left on the cutting room floor?
No, not necessarily. We got everything done that we planned. Originally, he wanted a huge pair of dice, and then we swapped that out and we ended up doing the alien.
I know he uses the extraterrestrial theme on some of his shoes. Was that the idea?
That's exactly what it is. He's just continuing the same aesthetic that he has with his clothing line. I actually have a Puma shirt where they use my tattoo design. So that's his theme. That's his aesthetic. Most of the tattoos are all space-themed. They have some sort of alien element to to them or that scary type of font.
via Herchell Carrasco
What does something this size with this much detail cost to get done?
It's like a $20,000 tattoo right there.
Would you say that's on the higher end?
It definitely is. I do a lot of backpieces, but they take sessions. My back pieces go for half that rate. $8,000 to $10,000 is usually what I do my full-back pieces for. But again, they're done in longer sittings and the same amount of days. So, I'll do a full back piece in two to three sessions, but they're like eight to 10-hour sittings. And that's just me by myself. We had to make sure my guys all made some money off of it too and they're compensated for their time. So yeah, it is a little higher than usual, but there's so many people involved.
What would you say is the most challenging part of a tattoo like this?
The tattoo is the easy part for me. That's what we do every day. That's already second nature. The challenging part is really settling on the design. And then also working with his schedule too. His schedule fluctuates so much and he's limited on time, so it's very hard for me to get him.
What is your favorite element of the piece?
I really like the neckpiece that he has, the UFO, just because it's one of those tattoos that's going to always be seen when he's wearing a jersey. You're only going to be able to see the edges of the rest of it. You might see some of the new work on his arms. He threw on a jersey so we could see exactly what was going to show. So the UFO is probably one of my favorites because it's going to be seen. It's going to be on NBA 2K. Those things are really cool.
What was LaMelo’s first reaction to the finished piece?
He couldn't stop looking at it. I was surprised. I thought he would've been in more pain, but I do know he was getting vitamins through IV. I actually recommended he get an IV with vitamins, and I think that really helped him out. That's something that I'm going to start implementing in all my big tattoo sessions. But he was so excited. He kept calling me about it. He was already talking about his next tattoos. At the end of the day, that's what matters. It's been weeks and he's still super excited about it.
Have you been paying close attention to some of the commentary on social media about the tattoo? Do you have any thoughts on the positive and the negative that you've seen?
Yeah, I do. Anything involving the Ball brothers, it's going to come with hate. And I think it just comes with so much traffic coming onto these posts. I've been creating content for over 10 years. Anything that goes viral or gets numbers, you have to accept the bad with the good. The hate is part of it. I don't take it personally. Some of these comments are funny. I know LaMelo doesn't pay any no mind to it. So it is what it is. It's part of the game.
Any upcoming things going on or goals that you have for the future?
I plan on working more with the Ball brothers. I have a lot of celebrity sessions that are in the works. I'm actually working on a TV pilot that's being funded by TikTok, so that's been in the works. I'm hoping to pitch a TV show pretty soon. But yeah, I'm always staying busy. I'm always focused on my YouTube. But yeah, just kind of keep doing what I'm doing and trying to move forward.
You have this great relationship with the Ball family. Ever think you'll get to tattoo LaVar?
[Laughs.] I always joke about getting LaVar in the chair. I hope to tattoo him one day. That would be the ultimate. That's the only one I need off my Ball family checklist.
This article was originally published on Complex.com.
