In swimming, there is a certain bond felt by American swimmers who achieve superstar status prior to college. A kindred spirit at the ups-and-downs of trying to ride through everything that goes along with high school in addition to juggling this status as the best in the world at what you do.
For two such stars, Missy Franklin and Lydia Jacoby, there is now an additional bond via their Olympic rings tattoos.
The 17-year old Jacoby, who won Olympic gold over the summer at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, got her Olympic rings tattooed on Sunday at Think Tank South in Littleton, Colorado by tattoo artist Chris Collinsworth. More than 9 years ago, Collinsworth also did the tattoo of a then-17 year old Franklin after her first Olympic Games in London where she won 4 gold and 1 bronze medal.
While Franklin opted for a small multi-colored tattoo on her hip, Jacoby went with a larger set of rings, in all black, on her side/mid-back.
“I was so happily surprised when Lydia texted me telling me the amazing coincidence of us having the same tattoo artist for our Olympic rings tattoo,” Franklin told SwimSwam. “We all know what a small world the swimming community can be, and it’s so special when these moments happen. I will never forget getting my rings tattoo with Kara (Lynn Joyce), and to see Lydia getting hers just filled my heart with so much inspiration and joy.
“It was unbelievably well deserved.”
Franklin, now 26, retired from swimming in December 2018, wrapping one of the most-decorated careers in American swimming history. In addition to 6 Olympic medals, she has 11 World Championships and 18 total World Championship medals in her career.
Collinsworth usually creates large, brightly-colored tattoos, and while Jacoby’s was considerably more tame and simple than his usual showpiece designs, Collinsworth still posted about what an honor it was on his Instagram story.
“I had the honor of tattooing an [Olympic medalist] today,” Collinsworth said. “Thank you again Lydia for letting me take a little part in your amazing journey that you have gone through. Congratulations again I’ll be watching and cheering for you in the upcoming Olympics in Paris.”
Jacoby is from the small town of Seward, Alaska, which shot her to fame this summer when she won her Olympic gold medal in upset fashion. She was in the Denver area visiting family after returning from the Short Course World Championships last week in the UAE, where she withdrew from the meet early after a ‘close contact’ exposure to COVID-19.
I really like the look of the rings in all black. Everyone’s multicolored rings look super faded after a few years of insufficient sunscreen, etc.
now here’s a guy
Umm . Colorado is off the tattoo tourist list for some time .
She just lost a fan.
I love watching different commenters’ commenting patterns and learning a lot about them.
It’s my favorite video game tbh.
The power you guys hold in the personal profiles of so much of the swim community and their comment histories is unmatched.
I know it would kinda kill the whole “anonymity” thing but man I’d love to see some of those demographics/stats.
What demographics do they have about us besides our approximate location based on IP addresses? I don’t recall filling out anything besides name and email address, but I might have forgotten.
I grew up in the “stranger danger”/“don’t use your real name on the internet” era, and I don’t use an email address with my name in it for things like SwimSwam, registering for mailing lists/coupons, etc. I wonder what percentage of SwimSwam posters use an obviously identifiable email to post here.
As far as hard data I wouldn’t imagine they’d have much more than our registered email/IP address, but I’d imagine that those two paired with comment history would be pretty telling.
Hi Mickey!
Howdy!
Lol nobody cares.
I’m sure when she is swimming for gold again you’ll be cheering her name.
I’m generally not a fan of tattoos, but I make an exception for the Olympic rings. You have to be in a special club to (legitimately) get those. Also, despite not liking tattoos personally, I’m still a fan of Dressel and plenty of other Olympians with tattoos because they seem like good people and are great competitors. I can move past not liking an aspect of their appearance.
same i honestly don’t really like Dressel’s tats but it doesn’t affect my opinion of him as a person/swimmer, and also he has no reason to care about my opinion on his tats and I respect that lol
but why? because she got a tattoo that shows her insanely hard work and dedication to the sport?
Not that I care if anyone gets a tattoo, especially not the Olympic Rings, but is it legal in the USA to tattoo under 18s?
I think with a parent permission thingy
Different states have different laws. In most states, it’s 18. Some 16, some other rules.
In Alaska, minors may not legally get tattoos, with or without parental permission. In Colorado, a parent or legal guardian must be present, and then a minor can get a tattoo. So, that’s probably why she waited until she was in Colorado to get hers.
Fair enough. Was just curious.
Pretty sure where I am it is no under 18s full stop.
But under 18s get tattooed illegally anyway, just not by proper studios obviously.
Full stop, nobody cares.
That’s YOUR opinion.
Ok, boomer.
Things you can Google ….