Love, religion, and mythology tattoos steal show at World Cup skin-fest

This year's World Cup in Brazil is set to be the most heavily inked of all time.

This year's World Cup in Brazil is set to be the most heavily inked of all time.

Blame it on David Beckham. It was a combination of the former England captain's hair and tattooed muscles that took soccer players from the back pages to the fashion ramps.

Players featuring in this year's tournament have generated hype with much more than their ball skills.

Historically, tattooing has been practised in many cultures and dates back as far as 6000BC. Over the years, the art of body tattooing has gained a reputation for being associated with sailors, criminals and rock'n'roll bad boys.

More recently, this ideology has allowed for tattooing to become an accepted art form of personal expression.

According to Britain's Country Life magazine, one of the keys to being a modern gentleman is to have a tattoo. The magazine suggests the trend for body art is imitating a tradition prevalent in British high society in the 19th century. During that time, some gentlemen exhibited exotic tattoos from Japanese artists, before the ink art fell out of fashion after the turn of the century.

When the kit comes off at the World Cup, lurking beneath those form-fitting jerseys and tattooed on the chiselled chests and biceps are the names of loved ones, religious insignia and mythological creatures.

Some of the best-tattooed soccer players are:

Portugal's Raul Meireles, 31, whose body is a canvas for multiple tattoos, including images of his wife, Ivone, and daughter Lara. He also boasts a huge black-and-red dragon across his back;

Brazilian Dani Alves, 31, is also a family man, as tattoos of his wife and son indicate. He famously ate a banana, as a response to racist taunts, after it was thrown at him during a match;

Soccer's poster boy, Sergio Ramos, 28, may have a tough-guy reputation on the pitch, but his tattoos tell a different story. One of the Spanish defender's tattoos was inked in honour of those killed in the New York and Madrid terror attacks.

He also favours a line from the late Nelson Mandela's favourite poem, Invictus, which reads: "I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. I am the master";

The title of newly crowned Twitter hunk for 2014 has been claimed by Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng. The sight of his impressively tattooed body even caught the attention of pop diva Rihanna, who tweeted about her newly discovered crush;

Argentina's Ezequiel Lav-ezzi, 29, has the face of soccer legend Diego Maradona tattooed along the left side of his body;

Australian lead scorer Tim Cahill, 34, previously said in an interview that his body art was about his family and culture. "The sorest part was inside my arm. That's why I put my family's names there as I hoped it would ease the pain . . . it shows the things that are most important to me in my life."

The impressive arms of French forward Olivier Giroud, 28, include a biblical phrase and the Polynesian symbols for family, courage, love, and strength;

Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong, 29, has a mosaic-inspired tattoo on the upper part of his body;

Iran is certainly not being tipped to win the tournament, but half-German Iranian forward Ashkan Dejagah, 27, is a hot favourite.

With the words ''Never forget where you're from" and Berlin and Tehran tattooed on each arm, Dejagah is proud of his mixed heritage; and

Soccer's new kids on the pitch - former host the US - are hoping to cement their legacy in a game dominated by Europe and South American teams. Goalkeeper Tim Howard is tasked with keeping goals from the world's best strikers out of the net. Perhaps that is why his body is inked with Superman's logo.