Rick Pitino made the promise after Louisville lost to Notre Dame in a five-overtime classic on Feb. 9, 2013. If his team went on to win the national championship, Pitino would get a Louisville tattoo.
Rick Pitino’s tattoo artist is happy to help him vacate his Louisville championship ink
A Q&A with Adam Potts, the man who gave Rick Pitino the tattoo commemorating Louisville’s now vacated title.
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The Cardinals didn’t lose another game the rest of the season. When Russ Smith, Luke Hancock and Peyton Siva carried Louisville to national championship game victory over Michigan, Pitino knew what he had to do.
Pitino got the tattoo from Adam Potts at Tattoo Salvation, a parlor on the east side of Louisville. Potts initially reached out to Pitino after he read his quotes and was thrilled to be taken up on the offer as a lifelong U of L fan.
That tattoo found new symbolism on Tuesday with the NCAA’s decision to remove Louisville’s 2013 title banner because of the program’s involvement in a prostitution scandal. It begs the question: What happens to Pitino’s tattoo?
We called the man who gave it to him to see what advice he’d give Louisville’s disgraced former coach.
Do you do tattoo removal? Would you do it for Rick Pitino if he came in and asked you to remove the tattoo?
Adam Potts: We don’t do tattoo removal. At all. On anybody. But we do do cover-ups, where we do a new tattoo essentially over the top of an existing tattoo so that you can’t see the existing tattoo anymore. We do those all the time. Usually have a lot of fun with them.
We’d be happy to help with that with whatever he wanted to do just like any other customer.
Do you have anything you would suggest as a Louisville fan to cover that tattoo up with? Brandy once turned a tattoo of Quentin Richardson’s face into a cat.
Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t given a lot of thought to it. Up until this point, I was not sure what was going to happen with it.
Something that’s still Louisville related would be cool, maybe just the city as a whole. Thinking he might not be too into the university right now. A lot of times animals are a good go to. I’d imagine a cardinal is probably out of the question for him at this point. Maybe a nice thoroughbred racing horse.
I’d like a tattoo that says “Luke Hancock still hit five threes and the NCAA can never take that away.”
Lettering doesn’t typically work real well as a cover-up, but we could certainly do that somewhere else.
What type of tattoo cover-ups do you typically do?
We do all kinds. For a while, everybody wanted koi fish. That was a real go-to for a while. I’ve covered full entire sleeves with koi fish. I had a guy that literally just had a really shoddy outline of a very primitive road, just two lines with a dash line between them over his whole arm. We covered that up with a cat and owl fighting, I think.
I’ve been doing this for over 16 years. I’ve done too many tattoos to remember. Cover-ups are a big part of our business.
Have you ever had someone remove a tattoo because of an NCAA disciplinary decision?
... I don’t think so.
Did you do a lot of other Louisville championship tattoos after they won the 2013 title?
Once I did the coach’s, I did a lot more after that. I had done a few after the win, but especially after he got his I did a lot of U of L tattoos over the next couple months. Even today I still get people coming in — well, not specifically today — but I still get people coming in because the coach came here.
What was Pitino like as a customer?
He was great. At the time, him and his staff and everyone that came in here with him, they were all on cloud nine. They had just won a national championship. I think that year is the year he had a horse running in the derby. That was a few weeks away. Everybody was super excited and in really great spirits. The whole city was ecstatic after that win.
After everything that’s happened, would Pitino still be welcomed back if he did want to get that tattoo turned into a koi fish or perhaps a cat fighting an owl?
Absolutely. The shop prides itself on being a professional. If someone comes in wanting a tattoo, it’s our job to do it for him. I’d be more than happy to cover it up for him if he wanted.
Last question: harder to remove, a tattoo or a title?
Well, there’s not an appeals process for the tattoo removal. Getting the tattoo removed is probably a lot cheaper, too.
Real last question: What’s your favorite topping at Papa John’s?
That’s a tough one. Let’s go with extra cheese.
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