(The Conversation) — As the 2026 FIFA World Cup starts on June 11, 2026, traditional news and social media channels will be full of pictures of the players. Many of them will be showing their tattoos.

Body art has become increasingly part of international soccer, although its prevalence can vary across geographical regions. A study of athletes participating in the 2018 World Cup found that Latin American players were the most heavily tattooed, followed by those from Oceania and Europe. African and Asian players are the least tattooed.

I have been studying tattoos and their spiritual and religious roles since 2018. Tattoos are an investment of time and money; they tend to symbolize something important in the person’s life. For professional athletes, however, they take on another level of meaning.

These athletes operate in controlled environments in which what they do and say with their bodies is highly regulated. A player cannot freely ski, ride, work out or take vacations without considering contractual obligations to companies and other investors. Most of the professionals playing in the World Cup have also signed sponsorship agreements that regulate what they can display on their social media.

Against this backdrop, tattoos remain one of the few spaces of personal freedom. As my colleagues and I found in our research, those who get them are choosing to reveal what is important and sacred to them.

Breaking the code

Sociologists Sam Belkin and Dale Sheptak argue that tattoos are often a way for athletes to express their humanity in environments where they may be subjects of unreal expectations or treated as an asset. Belkin and Sheptak write that visible tattoos are a type of “nonverbal communication” that enables players to be honest about their personal feelings and what matters to them.

My colleagues and I analyzed the tattoos of the Argentine men’s national team that won the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. We looked at about 200 pictures and found that 20 of the 26 players on the roster had a total of 226 tattoos.

Argentina’s Rodrigo De Paul, left, and Lionel Messi at Lusail Stadium in Lusail City, Qatar, on Dec. 9, 2022, with their tattoos visible.
Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images

We analyzed the team’s demographics and the tattoo designs and placement on the players’ bodies. We also analyzed interviews where some of them had talked about their lives and, in some cases, the stories behind their tattoos. By placing these tattoos in the broader context of their professional paths and religious and popular culture, we were able to better understand what the body art meant to them.

A majority of players expressed their religious beliefs through their tattoos: 75% of them – 15 out of 20 – featured body art of religious figures connected to Catholicism, like the Virgin Mary, Jesus and saints; some also had tattoos of doves associated with the holy spirit, and churches.

We also saw religious diversity. There were tattoos of the Buddha, folk saints and spiritual objects. One player had a tattoo of a dream catcher – a handcrafted willow hoop with a woven net that resembles a spider’s web, typically hung above a bed to offer protection; another had the word “energía” – energy – inked on his body.

Seventy-five percent of the players had tattoos depicting what they achieved in their careers. Some of the symbols they used were trophies, jerseys and numbers. Usually the numbers they got corresponded to the jersey numbers they wear.

Eighty percent – 16 players – had tattoos that portrayed what they loved. These tattoos include designs of numbers – usually dates of their children’s births – names of beloved ones or their partner’s eyes or lips.

Some tattoos expressed their extended family, including parents, grandparents, people who helped raise them, and even pets.

Placement was also important. About 60% of the tattoos were on the arms and head, locations that were easily visible when they are performing on the field.

But the design of the tattoo also decided its placement: Religious symbols were usually placed on the entire shoulder or biceps, or on the upper or lower leg. Tattoos related to professional careers were usually located on the player’s dominant leg. Animal tattoos were usually placed on backs, and not visible during games.

Not all tattoos are the same

Many scholars who study soccer have examined its relationships with politics and explored how the sport has been a venue for politics. Diego Maradona, for example, got the Argentine Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara tattoo on his right arm and Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro on his calf, expressing his revolutionary political view. Our research team did not find political tattoos among current players.

Gender is also important when looking at tattoos. Female players are often subjected to greater scrutiny than their male counterparts. When Argentina’s national women’s team captain Yamila Rodriguez revealed tattoos of Cristiano Ronaldo, she faced intense criticism from fans and media for having the Portuguese superstar and not Argentinean Lionel Messi depicted in tattoo. Rodriguez’s experience highlights that women’s bodies are subjected to personal judgment in a way that men’s are not.

A tattoo of Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo on the leg of Argentina women’s team captain Yamila Rodriguez ahead of a match against Uruguay in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Oct. 28, 2025.
Eitan Abramovich/ AFP via Getty Images

This World Cup, with its unprecedented global outreach, offers a unique opportunity to observe the values, beliefs and relationships that players choose to display on their bodies. In some ways, tattoos can be seen as a small window into the players’ souls.

(Gustavo Morello, Professor of Sociology, Boston College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)