Washington, Feb 5 : There were mornings as a young child
that Nes Andrion yearned for the mother who he says left him behind in the
Philippines at the tender age of 8 months old and times his stomach burned with
hunger from so many inadequate meals – too often just bread and coffee, even as
a toddler.
There were days, he says, his feet grew sore from having no
shoes and his back ached from sleeping on a hard dirt floor – "just a bed sheet,
no pillow," he recalls.
Colin Kaepernick carries the ball on his
tattoo-covered right arm against the Packers. Colin Kaepernick carries the ball
on his tattoo-covered right arm against the Packers. Through it all, though, a
simple dream carried him.
The kid was an artist. The kid could draw. He
could create. He reveled in the moment it all came together.
And so,
sure, Nes Andrion grew up about as poor as you can in this world – "rock
bottom," he says – raised by his aunt and uncle, in a tiny, crowded house on the
side of the steep, thick mountains above Olongapo City, the Filipino port
town.
He always saw something bigger, though. He saw art. His art,
splashed across countries he could hardly fathom, seen by millions of people he
could barely envision.
"I wanted to spread my art around the whole
world," Andrion said. "I wanted everyone to see it."
Some improbable
dreams will be realized when the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens
meet in Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 in New Orleans.
None, however, will
defy the odds of this: Nes Andrion, the child raised in crushing Third World
poverty will have his artwork beamed in front of a global audience of hundreds
of millions, on display via the most non-traditional of canvases: the arms of
49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Andrion is a tattoo artist. Now 35,
he lives in Reno, Nev., where he immigrated at age 10, was drawn into working
with ink after high school and in 2007 watched a tall, redshirt freshman
quarterback from the University of Nevada walk into his small, humble shop and
ask for a tattoo.
Andrion didn't know who Kaepernick was that day,
although his height and build suggested a considerable athlete. Kaepernick
didn't know who Andrion was either. He arrived on the recommendation of a
friend. They immediately hit it off.
"I had him do one piece, I really
liked it, and I've been going to him ever since," Kaepernick told
reporters.
Across hours and hours of Andrion covering Kaepernick's back,
shoulders and arms with elaborate ink designs, the two became friends – the
Californian headed for professional football and the artist from the other side
of the earth.
"He's everything you want your kids to be," said Andrion,
who texts regularly with the QB. "A real humble guy, quiet. He was always like
that. Just a nice guy."
Kaepernick often had a specific idea of what he
wanted done, sometimes a motivational saying, often from the Bible. He's focused
on drawing inspiration from his tattoos.
"Against All Odds," is
emblazoned across his chest. A version of Psalm 27:3 "Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not be afraid" can be read on his left shoulder. Those words are
surrounded by: "God Will Guide Me," which is Andrion's favorite.
"That's
life," he said.
Then there is Kaepernick's back, a mural of angels and
demons that took 18 hours over a couple of sessions to complete and has earned
Andrion artistic acclaim.
Kaepernick burst onto the national stage in
midseason when he became the 49ers' starting quarterback. Suddenly the heavily
inked arms were flashing across television screens. "You don't see quarterbacks
like that," Andrion said.
First there was curiosity, then some negative
press and then a backlash of support.
As a show of confidence to his
critics, Kaepernick has taken to "Kaepernicking" – kissing both biceps (he has
"faith" inscribed on his right and "to God the glory" on his left).
"[It]
is kind of my way of saying I don't really care what people think about my
tattoos," Kaepernick said. "I got them for me and to show people this is what I
believe in. And God has brought me this far. He's laid out a phenomenal path for
me and I can do nothing but thank him."
For Andrion, the entire thing was
a whirlwind impossible to envision. He's done work on other eventual pro
athletes, but for the most part he was an unknown guy with a small shop catering
mostly to college kids.
Colin Kaepernick smiles following the Niners' win
over the Packers in the divisional round. (AP)Colin Kaepernick smiles following
the Niners' win over the Packers in the divisional round.
It's even more
difficult to imagine when you consider Andrion's journey. He says his mother,
Evelyn, left him and some of his siblings behind in the Philippines in the late
1970s to immigrate to the United States in search of a better future for the
family.
He was, by his own admission, "really poor," basically the kind
of poor that has been mostly eradicated in the States but is too common in the
Philippines.
"Just bread for breakfast," Andrion said. "Just bread. If
you got an egg too, well, that was once in a blue moon." The home featured a
dirt floor and everyone lined up at night next to each other. He was barefoot
most of his life. "My uncle and aunt couldn't even afford a pair of flip-flops
for me."
Finally, in the late 1980s, just as he was about to turn 11, his
mother was able to petition to bring him and three of his siblings to America.
She was remarried by then and while everyone crowded into a two-bedroom condo in
Reno – "four of us sleeping in one bed" – it was a long way from Olongapo
City.
All along he clung to art. He developed both his talents and a
passion for the work. He graduated from Sparks High School, got into tattoo work
and later opened his own parlor, Endless Ink, just southeast of downtown Reno
and less than two miles from the UNR campus.
Tattoos, he believed, were
the best forum for his work.
"I wanted my art to be on a person, not on
paper," Andrion said. "I wanted it walking around. When someone has a tattoo,
they are displaying my work everywhere they go. Every country they go to, I feel
like I am going with them."
He admits the philosophy was rooted in the
idea that a tattoo might be admired one or two people at a time on a beach
somewhere. He never, ever, could've imagined this year, when suddenly
Kaepernick's tattoos were all over television, the subject of newspaper and
magazine photo spreads and website layouts.
He was quickly one of the
hottest tattoo artists in the country. He says he now has a three-month wait
period for an appointment and is requiring a down payment to hold the spot. The
phone keeps ringing and his email inbox is flooded.
This here is the
American Dream.
"It's not about the money," Andrion said. "Right now I'm
not even thinking about it. I've always just poured my heart into my work and
I've always believed if you do that, things will work out."
And, of
course, he knows this story hasn't even come close to its conclusion. Nothing
compares to the exposure of the Super Bowl. Of all the companies in the world
cashing in on the big game, maybe none will, proportionately, benefit more than
Endless Ink.
Kaepernick's tattoos, for any number of reasons, will be a
storyline during next week's media frenzy heading into the game. Then there is
the broadcast itself, which will attract an expected 100 million-plus viewers in
the United States alone and be shown in more than 230 countries, including the
Philippines.
Ends
SA/EN
