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All You Need to Know About Sean O’Malley’s Tattoos

Published 06/28/2021, 9:15 AM EDT

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Sean O’Malley is one of the brightest prospects to be a part of MMA. The fighter had an incredible start to his MMA career and won his first 12 professional MMA fights. Currently, the fighter has an amazing MMA record of (13-1) and is all set to face Louis Smolka at the UFC 264 event.

Ever since his UFC debut, ‘Sugar’ has been a fan favorite. From his outspoken nature to his very distinct hairstyle fans love every aspect of the fighter’s personality. However, the thing that really strikes the eye whenever you see ‘Sugar’ are his tattoos.

O’Malley has 14 tattoos spread throughout his body and all of them have different meanings. A person often uses tattoos to display his/her personality through art. While sometimes a tattoo might be an homage to someone or something. There might even be cases where the tattoos mean nothing and are just there for show.

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Therefore, today we looked at all of Sean O’Malley’s tattoos and tried to decipher what they mean.

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The 14 tattoos of Sean O’Malley

SUGA

The word ‘SUGA’ is tattooed on the fighter’s face, above his eyebrow. Many believe that this piece of art is a representation of Sean O’Malley’s nickname ‘Sugar.’

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EHTAERB

The world ‘EHTAERB’ is tattooed on the fighter’s forehead. This tattoo is hardly ever visible because of the fighter’s long hair. However, the fighter has talked about how this word is ‘BREATHE’ in reverse and how it reminds him to take a breath every time he looks in the mirror.

AKIATA

O’Malley has tattooed the word AKIATA on the left side of the fighter’s body. There is little to no information available about this piece of art and why O’Malley has it tattooed on himself.

The Upper Left Arm Tattoo

‘Sugar’ has his entire upper left arm covered with tattoos. It contains a green design pattern of some sort of masks interconnected via green vines.

ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME

O Malley has ‘ONLY GOD’ written on his right bicep, while on his left there is a tattoo saying ‘CAN JUDGE ME.’ ‘Sugar’ also has a scribbled line tattoo running across the left bicep.

This tattoo is pretty self-explanatory, as ‘Sugar’ believes in doing and saying whatever he feels like and is not conscious of getting judged by anyone apart from GOD.

A world-famous quote

On the right side of his body, O’Malley has one of the most famous quotes tattooed. The tattoo reads ‘Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee.’ One of the greatest fighters ever, Muhammad Ali said this quote.

Left Arm Tattoo

There are a plethora of tattoos in O’Malley’s left arm. There are some random designs that include a hat, some glasses, a horseshoe, and a sun that emits a rainbow.

‘Family’

On the inner side of his right forearm, ‘Sugar’ has a tattoo that says ‘FAMILY.’ The tattoo is clearly there as a symbol of the love ‘Sugar’ has for his family.

Flower/Snake tattoo

On his right forearm, O’Malley has the tattoo of a snake wrapped around an arm and the arm reaching for a bouquet.

Foot Steps

Right around the left side of his chest and stomach, ‘Sugar’ has two footsteps tattooed. One of which has the word ‘BRIGHTON’ written near it, while the other says ‘OAKLY.’ There is a third tattoo that reads ‘O’Malley’ and is placed just beneath the footsteps.

Tribute to the Family

On the left side of his back, O’Malley has a tattoo design of his family crust and it has a wild boar in the middle. The tattoo is a representation of the O’Malley family coat of arms with each color and design representing something different. The red color represents Military Fortitude, while the Gold represents generosity and finally, the boar is the symbol of a warrior.

Free spirit

On the fingers of O’Malley’s right hand, the word ‘FREE’ is tattooed, and this tattoo is an accurate representation of O’Malley’s attitude in life.

The O’Malley representation

On the left side of his back, O’Malley has a banner with his family name ‘O’ Malley’ tattooed on it. While at the back of his right arm he has the tattoo of a ribbon with a boxing glove at both ends of it.

‘OWL’

The most prominent and easily visible amongst O’Malley’s tattoos is the OWL tattooed right in the middle of the fighter’s chest. The ‘OWL’ is considered the symbol of wisdom and that is why ‘Sugar’ has it tattooed on his chest.

‘Sugar’ talks about his favorite tattoo

During an interview, O’Malley was asked which is his favorite tattoo. The fighter answered, “Probably some on my face. I remember when I want to get a face tattoo, Danny my girl, she’s like, No don’t do it. It was the star in it. I was like, I’m stupid enough to get a fade tattoo, but I’m smart enough to get a fake one first.

“So I got the fake star tattoo, before my fight with Andre and I was like, damn, I like that. So I went got the star, I was feeling like a fu*king superstar, I was on the PPV, I’m in the UFC, 22 years old, I’m like fu*k I’m getting a star on my face. I ain’t ever working a fu*king job again.

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“So probably the star, that’s what started the face tattoos, then I got ‘SUGA’, then I got Breathe. It says breather when you look in the mirror. So that was very cool as I was learning more about my breath and meditation and stoicism, and it all comes back to just breathing and feeling that breath so I got that one. I liked that one a lot.”

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“Then I got the heart, the heart was just like I want something on my face.”

We can clearly see how much the tattoos mean to Sean O’Malley and how there is a particular reason behind each of them. ‘Sugar’ is a young fighter and has yet to achieve many things in life. Therefore, we can expect the fighter to get many more tattoos throughout the years.

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Written by:

Paras Pande

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Paras Pande is a UFC author at EssentiallySports who is pursuing his graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication. An ardent follower of the UFC, he has been covering the sport for 2 years now. Before joining the team at EssentiallySports, Paras gained expertise as an MMA writer whilst working with Sportskeeda.
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