Knicks fans are getting permanent ink for playoffs: ‘Way more Knicks tattoos than I've ever done'
New York fan Brandon Soler is showing his love for the Big Apple hoops squad Friday by permanently etching a blue and orange team logo tattoo into his shin — and he's just one of many hoops-lovers flocking to city artists to get some team ink, as the Knicks continue to make their deep title run.
'It's New York and the Knicks – I also wanted to represent New York as a whole, where I'm from,' the 45-year-old Bronx man told The Post.
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4 Tattoo shops across the Big Apple are reporting a surge in requests for Knicks-themed tattoos during playoff season.
Courtesy of Adam Korothy
'It's New York Proud. We're all proud people.'
'It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,' he added, as he got the work done at a studio in Gowanus run by artist Steven Avalos.
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'Really, just that I'm a big fan and they're doing well this year.'
And Soler isn't afraid of having any regrets if the underdog squad goes down to the Indiana Pacers in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals Saturday.
He thought it might even bring the team some luck.
'I figured I'd get it in the first round [of the playoffs], we did well against the [Detroit] Pistons and we're doing it better. So I feel like it's more luck,' he said.
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Nikhil Dhanani — who was also at Avalos' studio — opted for an arm tattoo with the Knicks' 'NY' logo spelling out 'New York' above the Unisphere from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.
4 New York Knicks fan Brandon Soler, 45, got a permanent tattoo Friday with the team's blue and orange logo on his shin.
Stefano Giovannini for NY Post
'New York's never leaving me,' the 26-year-old said.
'I've wanted the New York Knicks tattooed on me for the longest [time], it's been on my list – and then there was like all this New York pride going on right now,' he said.
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'It felt like the right moment to do it.'
Avalos, who tattooed both fans on Friday, told The Post the Knicks' 2025 play off run, which saw them causing wild parties in the streets as they knocked off the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, is causing a rush to get Knicks tats like he's never seen.
'It's way more Knicks tattoos than I've ever done,' said Avalos, 40, who has scheduled roughly a half-dozen Knicks-themed appointments for this week alone.
4 The Bronx native told The Post, 'It's New York and the Knicks – I also wanted to represent New York as a whole, where I'm from.'
Stefano Giovannini
'I think this is the craziest I've ever seen Knicks fans, because of the playoffs.
'When it comes to being a Knicks fan, you kind of expect losing,' Avalos added, 'so I think that being a Knicks fan – or being a Jets fan – there's certain New York teams where you think you're never going to win. [Fans] are really just that glad they're doing well this year.'
A rep for Live By The Sword, a tattoo shop with locations in Union Square, Williamsburg and Soho, similarly reported a surge in Knicks ink – and even dropped a 'flash' sheet of ready-made designs on April 25.
'We definitely have had a lot of interest in the Knicks designs,' a rep for the studio told The Post, adding that the flash sheet was shared among local ink lovers nearly 500 times online.
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'The Knicks are momentous right now,' said Michael Bellamy, a tattoo artist and owner of Red Rocket Tattoo in Midtown – which has been asked to do a 'handful' of tattoos honoring the Knickerbockers in the last month alone.
4 Soler got the tattoo at a studio in Gowanus, done by artist Steven Avalos.
Stefano Giovannini
Michelle Myles, a tattoo artist and co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo in the Lower East Side, similarly said Knicks fans have been no stranger to her shop — with fans getting everything from the Knicks' logo to team-inspired knuckle tattoos in recent weeks.
'If they continue on, I imagine we'll probably get some more [customers],' she said, noting the shop's upcoming Friday the 13th flash sheet will 'definitely' have Knicks-themed art.
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Avalos, a longtime Brooklynite and Long Island native, told The Post that he notices a spike in New York sports team-related tattoos, unsurprisingly, when a team does well — and recalls a surge in Yankees-related tattoos during the Bronx Bombers' World Series streak in the early 2000s.
'The Yankees, I remember, they had a really good era of being champions,' he said, 'so imagine just growing up in New York and going to Yankee Stadium and seeing your home team win: It gave you a lot of pride for the city.
'I think sports tattoos are super important, it gives people the sense of pride of being a New Yorker [and] ownership of this city,' he added — though the Knicks ink may not be limited to just New Yorkers for long.
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'Tourists will hop on the bandwagon with that one,' Avalos said, 'if they win the championship.'
The Knicks are down 3 to 2 against the Pacers, who they face in Indiana Saturday night.
If they win, the series will go to it climactic Game 7 finale in New York Monday.
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