"If you look at my rookie year, my sleeve was terrible." Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby breaks down his tattoos. From his now fully fleshed out arm sleeve to the portraits that cover his full torso, the NFL player shares the stories behind his ink.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 All right, y'all, you know what I'm here for.
00:01 Let's get into it.
00:02 [upbeat music]
00:05 First two tattoos, so I took my brother's ID.
00:11 I was 17 years old.
00:12 It was just my last name and the year I was born
00:14 and I got it tatted on my wrist
00:16 and then I got my great grandma on my forearm.
00:19 I got this from my mom.
00:20 My great grandma was super close to her
00:22 and she passed away when I was young.
00:24 So that's why I want to get it, you know,
00:25 from my mom, but also her.
00:27 If you look at my rookie year, my sleeve was terrible.
00:30 Like it had no, it wasn't together
00:32 'cause I literally would just get like one random tattoo
00:36 and then another one.
00:36 And so, yeah, you know, for me, I always thought like,
00:39 okay, I'm gonna get one sleeve, I'm gonna leave one clean.
00:42 And right now it looks clean,
00:43 but I've already started my second sleeve.
00:44 This took time.
00:46 I had a tattoo artist who kind of meshed it all together
00:49 at the time, which is a lot of things
00:51 that mean a lot to me.
00:52 This is one of my favorites, the term pain into power.
00:55 I feel like it really relates to, you know, my story.
00:57 Still a recovering addict,
00:59 gone through a lot of shit in my life.
01:01 So this is like one that I see in the mirror all the time
01:05 and it represents a lot for me.
01:06 And then I could go on and on, you know, I got,
01:08 time is now, that's like the little digital clock.
01:11 I got that from D'Angelo Russell.
01:12 So I'm not gonna, you know, steal his swag,
01:14 but he's got like a bigger one.
01:15 I got my sobriety date right here.
01:18 If I had any type of inkling to pick up a drink or smoke
01:20 or anything like that, it's the first thing I would see.
01:22 And that's why I got the triangle over here.
01:23 So it's like, first thing I see on my hands
01:25 is my sobriety dates.
01:26 Obviously got Eastern Michigan,
01:28 my number that I wore there.
01:30 XXX Centacion tattoo when he passed away.
01:33 He had this tattoo on his face and forehead.
01:35 So I got that one on me.
01:36 That was like right before the draft.
01:39 You know, I got a lot of roses,
01:40 Rachel Rose, my wife.
01:42 I got Ella Rose, my daughter.
01:43 Roses are like huge to me.
01:44 I got Rose Gold on everything.
01:46 Like that's like number one thing to me.
01:47 Got the Raider tat on the back of me.
01:49 I got that right as I got drafted.
01:51 I got the Mad Max tattoo on me.
01:54 The fans obviously gave me the nickname.
01:55 So I got that like right before the season started.
01:59 They started calling me that
02:00 in like training camp and stuff like that.
02:01 One of my favorite quotes,
02:03 I remember Charles Woodson.
02:04 He told me that there's 31 teams in the NFL
02:07 and there's one Raider Nation.
02:09 And like, we're different.
02:10 We do things a little bit differently.
02:11 You know, we do shit our way.
02:13 And I feel like that's what being a Raider is.
02:15 It's just being like that outlaw in the league.
02:17 And like, I feel like we're starting to bring that back.
02:19 So it's been great to see.
02:22 I really didn't know what I wanted on my hand.
02:24 'Cause like, that's like a big deal.
02:26 You know what I mean?
02:27 You rock a suit,
02:27 like that's the first thing you're gonna see is the hand.
02:29 So I was like, we just ended up rolling with the skeleton.
02:31 So I don't know if I'm not gonna do it on this hand,
02:33 but I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do on the other hand.
02:35 But yeah, he definitely killed that.
02:37 I'm big into rap.
02:40 Like my mom is born and raised in Seven Mile Detroit.
02:44 Like, so she put us on like Eminem
02:46 and like I just seen rappers all the time being tatted up.
02:49 And I was like, I wanna get my torso done.
02:51 Like everybody gets their back,
02:52 but they're scared to get the front done.
02:54 So I'm like, I'm gonna get the front done first.
02:55 You know, for me, I had so many ideas
02:57 and I'm like, it's a big ass canvas.
02:59 So for me, I wanted to, you know,
03:01 I wanted to do it the right way.
03:02 Finding the right person was hard.
03:05 I met this dude named Ortega in Arizona
03:09 and I seen him do like CD Lamb
03:10 and a couple other NFL guys and NBA guys.
03:13 He ended up coming out to the house.
03:14 They have a full team, like five people.
03:17 I did two sessions in a row.
03:18 It was like 13 hours and they did my whole torso.
03:21 I have my certain inspirations,
03:23 like the Michael Jordans, the Kobe's, the Ali's.
03:25 Like those are the guys that I look up to
03:27 in a lot of different ways.
03:28 And so I wanted to get them on, you know,
03:30 obviously a tribute to them.
03:32 Interviews, things like that.
03:33 Like that's sort of the mental side of the game.
03:35 I've learned the most from those three.
03:36 So, when I'm beat legendary, I got that on there.
03:39 It's my favorite quote of all time.
03:42 More roses as well.
03:43 But the most important one is my daughter, Ella Rose.
03:47 I got her right here on my chest.
03:50 She's number one for obvious reasons,
03:52 but you know, I thought I had it, you know,
03:54 had all the inspiration, motivation in the world.
03:57 But like, once I had my daughter,
03:58 like it's at a whole different level.
04:01 Just from a mental standpoint,
04:02 she comes first no matter what.
04:05 So for me, I had to get her tatted.
04:07 And then, you know, obviously me and my wife
04:08 probably gonna have more kids.
04:09 I got room on my back, so I can't leave them out.
04:12 So, I got the neck before I got my whole torso tatted.
04:18 So when I had the neck tattoo,
04:19 everyone thought my whole body was tatted,
04:20 but it was just my neck.
04:22 I got the triangle on me,
04:23 and obviously it means the world.
04:24 I got triangles all over me.
04:26 It represents sobriety.
04:27 And I got the back of my neck done as well.
04:29 It's kind of a Conor McGregor inspiration,
04:31 but yeah, another triangle at the top,
04:33 and then it's like the McGregor vines going down.
04:35 But I definitely have a lot of canvas left, so.
04:38 I seen PJ Tucker, I seen Canelo with the wings,
04:40 so I wanted like bigger,
04:41 a little bit bigger version of those.
04:43 [upbeat music]
04:44 I got, obviously the Michigan on me.
04:47 I was born, raised in Michigan until I was 10.
04:49 I moved to Texas,
04:50 went to middle school and high school out in Texas,
04:52 so I got those.
04:52 I got the killer be killed, the Nate Diaz quote,
04:55 one of my favorite quotes of all time.
04:57 I love this tattoo as well,
04:58 but the legs, the reason why they're not done,
04:59 because the thighs hurt like hell.
05:01 For this off season, like I'm getting my whole legs blasted.
05:05 So I plan on doing that.
05:07 The guy that did my torso and everything,
05:09 having him do, you know, their whole team,
05:11 knock out my legs, so.
05:13 I love my tattoos, like it's a part of who I am.
05:15 It's kind of like its own story,
05:17 like, you know, from the beginning where I came from,
05:19 they all got their own like history.
05:21 Once they put it all together,
05:22 like I think it, you know,
05:23 it's definitely, it's come a long way.
05:25 (upbeat music)