Nowadays, the name LeBron James is synonymous with basketball. The Ohioan’s early basketball prowess was evident, as he had already won numerous awards before finishing high school. According to Biography, James went straight from high school to superstardom when he was selected first overall in the 2003 NBA draft.

James has had a remarkable career, one that began in his hometown with his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and has taken him all over the country. After helping the Heat win NBA championships in 2012 and 2013, he returned to Cleveland and led the Cavaliers to their first championship in 2016. He left the Houston Rockets in 2018 and is currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Under his belt, the NBA star has various records, four NBA championship titles, and two Olympic gold medals, per Olympics. You can tell he’s a tattoo enthusiast by looking at his Instagram page or at footage of him playing basketball; similarly, “King James” has a lot of tattoos.

The number of LeBron James’ tattoos is uncountable.

LeBron James keeps quiet about his tattoos, save to publish pictures of them on Instagram occasionally. However, the sheer number of them proves that he enjoys being tattooed. A tribute to Kobe Bryant, who sadly perished in a helicopter crash with his daughter in 2020, is featured prominently among his more recent tattoos. James’ Instagram shows a thigh piece honoring Bryant with a giant black snake bearing the numbers “24” and “8” and the words “Mamba 4 Life” underneath, a reference to the latter’s moniker and jersey numbers.

James, a high school junior at the time, got the tattoo “Chosen 1” over his shoulder blades in honor of the magazine’s cover headline “The Chosen One.”According to BodyArtGuru, James’s frontal tattoos include a giant winged lion on his chest and the phrases “family” and “loyalty” written down his left and right rib cages.

James shows off most of his ink on his arms. The name of his son Bryce is tattooed on his right arm, and he has a portrait of his son Prince on his left forearm. The “Gloria” tattoo above the lion’s head is a tribute to his mother. James’s leg tattoos are a nod to a Nike marketing campaign from 2006. The word “Witness” appears vertically on one leg, while the word “History” appears on the other. The basketball player is inked all over; there are too many tattoos to count, but they all represent important people and ideas to James.

Legal issues arose because of LeBron James’ tattoos.

In 2016, LeBron James’s tattoos became the subject of a lawsuit. The video game “NBA 2K16” features James along with other prominent basketball players including Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, and James Harden. According to the New York Post, Solid Oak Sketches filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the game’s developers because of the game’s accurate portrayal of basketball stars.

Take-Two Interactive Software, developers of the game, made sure that a number of prominent players sported instantly recognizable tattoos. However, Solid Oak Sketches claimed ownership of eight of the tattoo designs utilized in the game and sued for infringement.

The tattoos in the suit feature James’ son’s photo on his left arm, the words “On My Own,” the Akron area code “330,” a script with scrolls, and beautiful clouds and doves. The lawsuit also cited four additional players with tattoos. According to the New York Post, in 2020 a judge found that James’ tattoos could not be used as legal grounds to sue the game’s developers for copying the player’s likeness.