Decorating flexed biceps, taut forearms and sweaty napes of the neck, the Olympic rings tattoo is a ubiquitous sight among the many athletes who’ve competed on this planet’s most prestigious sporting event. The symbolic ink has turn into almost an initiation rite for many who earn the title of Olympians and today you see them all over the place across the Olympic village. But why achieve this many athletes have them and the way did it first start?

It was American former competition swimmer and two-time Olympic champion, Christopher Jacobs, who’s credited with starting the tattoo trend greater than 30 years ago, after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. After noticing that a handful of Canadian swimmers had small tattoos of the Canadian flag on their chests, Jacobs said, his mind wandered to a different iconic symbol: the Olympic rings. ”I do think it’s turn into a rite of passage,” said Jacobs, who now has three separate tattoos of the rings, told USA Today. ”It’s almost like a bit card for a somewhat exclusive club.”

It’s perhaps not surprising that it was a swimmer who began the trend – in spite of everything, while skateboarders have their decks and bobsledders their helmets, the one outlet these athletes have to indicate off their individuality is their bodies. However the trend quickly spread to other sports and now everyone from gymnast Simone Biles to sprinter and Dazed cover star Noah Lyles proudly wears the ink. “It’s like being a member of the Army Special Forces,” Mike Bruner, who won two gold medals on the 1976 Olympics and was a member of the team that boycotted the 1980 Games, told the New York Times in 2012.

The five rings of the Olympic Games represent the union of the five inhabited continents – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania – and their interlinking shows the inclusiveness of Olympism and the way athletes from everywhere in the world come together for the Games. What followed was the creation of a legacy for competing athletes; an inked reminder of the exclusivity that comes with labor and a lifetime of dedication. “I feel just like the Olympic rings is the one tattoo that only we are able to get,” archer Brady Ellison said in an interview with the Washington Post.

The Olympic rings tattoo has turn into something younger athletes dream of, imaging placements of designs a few years before they’re even sufficiently old to compete. Swimmer Stephanie Balduccini was just 16 when she competed within the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In keeping with Brazilian regulations for minors, her parents needed to sign a parental consent form, have it notarised, and be present during her tattoo. “I needed to sign plenty of terms to have the ability to do it, but I used to be very blissful,” Balduccini told Olympics.com. “People look and say, ’Wow, you’re an Olympian!’” American swimmer and two-time Olympian Dana Vollmer also needed permission from her parents when she got the tattoo as a minor.

Look closely and the rings are all over the place, spotted above Speedo waistbands, on hands gripping curling stones, and on legs that pivot on gymnasium beams. Some select large and daring designs that stand out amongst the group, while others prefer more understated options that may only be glimpsed while they compete. Now that the trend is so widespread, athletes are finding ways to personalise their tattoos, and make those five rings their very own. Turkey’s Mert Kilavuz has certainly one of the rings getting picked up by chopsticks, while teammate Berkay Öğretir transformed the rings on his left bicep right into a bursting firework show. American shooter Mary Tucker incorporated her rings right into a sleeve alongside French irises for the Paris Games, cherry blossoms for Tokyo, and Greek ferns as a nod to the origins of the Games.

Not everyone’s Olympic tattoos have been accepted, nonetheless. After the tradition spread to the athletes on the Paralympics, several para-athletes were asked by the organisers of the event to cover them in the course of the competition by blacking them out with a sharpie. In 2016, British swimmer Josef Craig was disqualified from a race because his tattoo was said to violate the International Paralympic Committee rule stating “body advertisements will not be allowed in any way in anyway (this includes tattoos and symbols)”. The Olympic rings represent a competing trademark since, technically, Paralympians compete under a distinct banner, logo and for a distinct organisation.

Tattoos will not be for everybody, and while some sport massive back pieces and vibrant designs, other athletes opt to not get tatted in any respect, even though it’s becoming an increasing few: in 2012, swimmer and 11-time Olympic medalist joked that she was “within the minority” as a non-inked Olympian. In order you watch the opening ceremony in Paris tomorrow, keep an eye fixed out and see what number of tattoos you’ll be able to spot.