Tattoos are extremely common in wrestling. It's one of the ways wrestlers enhance their look, which is quite important. Many wrestlers have their bodies covered with ink and a lot of these tattoos are also quite interesting. Darby Allin is one of those wrestlers from AEW who happens to have tons of tattoos on his body.
Allin has inked many parts of his body; some with phrases and others with illustrations. But Darby's tattoos aren't just to showcase to the world. They also contain meanings behind them, and some of them are also quite inspirational. With his face covered with paint, and his arms with ink, Darby Allin gets a look that matches his in-ring persona.
7 Darby Allin's Knuckles Display His Straight Edge Personality
When Darby Allin was only five years old, he went through a terrible accident that took his uncle's life. His uncle was driving while under the influence. While Darby survived this terrible accident, this incident really affected his state of mind.
His uncle's death is one of the reasons why Darby committed to living a straight-edge life. In honor of this straight edge personality, this young wrestler has also inked "Drug Free" on his knuckles. Wrestlers tend to easily abuse alcohol and pills to cope with their pain, but Allin is one of those wrestlers who stay away from drugs.
6 Darby & CM Punk Share An Exact Tattoo
Another fun fact about Darby's "Drug Free" tattoo is that CM Punk (who has interesting stories to tell about his tattoos) has the exact one on his knuckles as well.
Both wrestlers are straight edge in real life. This kind of tattoo is actually pretty common among straight edge people.
5 The Reason Why Most Of His Tattoos Are Only On One Side Of His Body
While Darby Allin has tattoos on different areas of his body, the majority of them are on the left side. The reason behind this is actually really simple. Fans already know that Darby applies the face paint on the left side of his body, and his plan is to slowly ink the whole left side of his body in the future. The former TNT Champion also says that "50 percent of me is dead inside."
So far, he's already covered his left arm with ink. And while his plan is to cover the entire left part of his body, Allin is still not sure if he also wants to ink his face or not. Face tattoos are quite rare, not just in wrestling but in general. Even stars like Umaga and Lord Tensai didn't have them; they used face paint.
4 Darby Got His First Tattoo When He Was 17
On AEW Unrestricted podcast, Darby Allin discussed various things. There, Aubrey Edwards (one of the hosts and also an AEW referee) asked Darby about his tattoos and the wrestler talked quite a bit about them as well. There, Allin revealed that the first-ever tattoo he got was the "Drug Free" one on his knuckles.
Allin got this tattoo when he was only 17 years old. He's currently 28, so it's been over a decade since his first tattoo experience. Like Darby, wrestlers such as Corey Graves, Aleister Black, and many others also got their first tattoo at a very young age.
3 Got A Tattoo Inside His Lips Because Of His Commitment To Becoming A Champion In Wrestling
Many fans may not know but Darby Allin also has a tattoo inside his lips, which reads "CHAMP." Allin's reason behind this tattoo was his commitment to becoming a champion.
Last year, the tattoo finally paid off when Darby won the TNT Championship from Cody Rhodes at Full Gear pay-per-view. This was his second championship in wrestling. Darby's first title victory as a wrestler happened in Northeast Wrestling where he won the NEW Heavyweight Championship by defeating JT Dunn in 2019.
2 The Meaning Of His Chest Tattoo
For those who don't know yet, Darby Allin also has a chest tattoo that reads "Nothing’s over ’til you’re underground." Some time ago, Sports Illustrated interviewed Darby where he revealed the meaning behind this tattoo.
He said, "I paint my face because 50 percent of me is dead inside, When I was five, my uncle was driving drunk. I was in the car with him. We crashed and he passed away. That’s why I have this ‘Nothing’s over ’til you’re underground’ tattoo on my chest."
1 Darby Wants To Show His Pain Through His Tattoos
Fans probably know by now that Darby Allin went through many traumatic events in his childhood. He was also homeless for quite a while and lived in his car, at one point.
Although his situation has gotten better over the years, and now he's one of the main characters in AEW, Darby hasn't forgotten about the pain he went through in his life. His tattoos are a testament to his pain and he wants people to know about them.