Lewis Hamilton did not want to conform to the stereo type Formula 1 driver, he wanted to be unique and make a mark in the sport on his terms and as himself, thus getting a tattoo was a step in asserting his own style in a world of preconceived expectations and behaviour.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Mercedes driver revealed, “Getting my first tattoo was an amazing feeling. To be able to walk into the paddock when everyone expects you to be a certain way and feel comfortable in your skin, to be able to say: This is how it is and that’s what I have, that was great.”
“I love my ink,” Hamilton told Men’s Health. “They all have a meaning. I’m very strong in my faith, so I wanted to have some religious images. I’ve got Pieta, a Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after he came off the cross, on my shoulder.”
“A sacred heart on my arm. Musical notes, because I love music. The compass on my chest is there because church is my compass. Family is everything for me, so I have ‘family’ written on the top, across my shoulders.
“Faith’, obviously. And I have powerful beyond measure’ written on my chest – it’s a short bit I took out of a quote from the writer Marianne Williamson. On my back I have the cross and angel wings: rise above it, no matter what life throws at you,” explained Hamilton.
There is an element of sofa-psychologists who interpret Hamilton’s free spirit as a result of a misplaced youth, or an absence of having lived his childhood due to racing commitments which began when he received his first kart at the age of 8.
But Hamilton scoffs at the theory, “What I’m doing now isn’t about having my youth. It’s just being able to be me. Dress the way I want to dress and be who I want to be. From the moment I got into F1 with McLaren, there was an immediate expectation: dress like this, this is how all the other drivers dress.”
“But I said: this is who I am and it was not accepted at the beginning but now I can say: you have no choice. That’s really why I’m in a more comfortable place now because I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m comfortable in who I am and what I do and the life that I live and just because it’s different to everyone else’s…”
Hamilton was mentored through his early career by McLaren who were, and are, famous for being pedantic with appearance of their staff and drivers. Portraying the correct corporately correct mage is very much an ethos of the Ron Dennis led organisation.
Hamilton recalled, “When I first started, people said: this is how a British driver is. But I’m not the same as the others so you just have to understand this is how it is and deal with it.”
“I’m definitely not one of the boys in F1. I don’t really know how to go and yap to everyone. I am generally relatively quiet. I don’t start a conversation with someone for no reason,” admitted the winner of 45 grands prix.
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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