A tattoo artist has spent about 33 hours illustrating baseball fan Benjamin Christensen.
Enthusiasm, wit and a broad knowledge of baseball will matter to the judges selecting the next inhabitants of MLB's Fan Cave. But Oakland Athletics fan Benjamin Christensen knows what's up regarding his own chances. The illustrations on both sides of his torso — a tattoo for each of the 30 teams in the American and National leagues — are probably his best selling point.
"I wanted to get every major league team on my body somehow, and the best way possible was ribs to hips on each side, so American League on the right side, and National League on the other," he said.
The audition video he submitted is pretty good, too. It helped him make a cut of 50 people who are being considered for the MLB Fan Cave, out of thousands of entries. Fans have until Feb. 22 to vote and whittle it down to the 30 finalists who'll go to Arizona for Fan Cave spring training. (Click through the video link to submit your vote for him.)
Given a quick glance, the tattoos might seem like straight-up reproductions of mascots and logos. But in many cases Christensen and the artist — Felix the Tat at Julien's Black Lotus Tattoo in Eugene, Ore. — added personal remembrances, historical anecdotes and often hilarious gags that will make Christensen's canvas forever unique.
Here's a sample: Screech, the Washington Nationals eagle, is wearing the Montreal Expos uniform that the franchise left behind in Canada. So rebellious.
And to think, Christensen's tattoos wouldn't tell nearly as compelling of a story if the 28-year-old hadn't gotten so sick a year ago.
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