Tale Of My Tattoo

A Giants running back goes behind his masks

GROWING UP in Napoleanville, La., the Giants ' Brandon Jacobs , 25, got early exposure to Mardi Gras—he went to his first when he was two or three. In 2004 he paid homage, getting tattoos of the festival's traditional laugh-now, cry-later masks, one on each pectoral. "It hurt like hell," says the 6'4" 254-pounder.

The masks are popular as body art—"In Louisiana one out of three men has those masks as tattoos," Jacobs asserts—although Jacobs 's twist is having them as skulls. "I wanted to be a little different, get the bone look," he says. "It's tougher looking." As proud as he is of his inkings (he also has the word swamp on one forearm, boy on the other), Jacobs has seen better. "My friend got one on each side of his stomach, the regular laugh-now, cry-later masks, with Afros. That's beautiful."