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Von: Tattoos for me are timeline of a story, tell me where I've been.
You know, tell me where I'm at right now
and they're giving me [cover].
A forecast of where I'm going
and I know the meaning behind every single tattoo
and all my tattoos are special too.
I'm Von Miller
(upbeat music)
and this is My Ink.
(upbeat music)
How many tattoos?
I can't even begin to, you know, count them.
My first tattoo I got was this cross up here.
And it says , "King of kings, lord of lords,"
and then when I got to college I got the doves on each side.
I waited a little bit and I got the word is yours from the Scarface movie.
When I got into league, I just started adding unto this.
I got the owl.
It means see the unseen, hear the unheard
then I got all of my football numbers right there.
My little brother's football number and my cousin's football number
and the roses are for whatever lady that is in my life.
I don't have to ever get her name,
I can just say, you know, I got the roses for us.
So, it saved me a lot of grief.
(upbeat music)
Phillip: How are you doing?
My name is Philip Spearman, I'm from Los Angeles.
I'm an international tattoo artist.
Today we're at Von Miller's house.
I'm giving him a tattoo.
Von: Me and Phil really just kicked it off.
He was a cool dude.
I enjoy being around him.
Phillip: I've known Von for a little while now
and did most of the work on his sleeve.
Von: You know, his artwork is some of the best around.
Well-renowned and travel to [unintelligible] in Germany
but still he makes time to come to Denver and tattoo.
The guy is just chilling and kicking so.
Phillip: I bring my stuff with me
but before I used to take the whole shop with me
but now I've got it condensed in 1 bag.
Von: This might as well be one of his offices here at the house
because you know, whenever he comes to town
there's a lot of the guys that want to get tattooed by him.
I mean, he's tattooed a lot of guys in the team.
He's going to tattoo Derek Wolfe today.
When we go to the locker room and he showed us tattoos
often in the locker room everybody says, "Next time you got filled out,
"Make sure I get a tattoo too."
Phillip: We become friends, I mean part of the family now.
So, I come out here a lot and I love this family and everybody here
and I'm glad to be part of it.
(upbeat music)
Von really don't like pain a lot and that needle,
that needle does hurt and we're doing the inside of his arm.
Von: You know, I ask my self every single time,
why am I getting a tattoo, this hurts.
Right when I'm finished I start thinking about other tattoos to get.
It's kind of like ...
I can't even explain the feeling that it is.
Tattoos hurt but I love them.
They make me feel good.
(slow music)
I've been doing some things in my life over the past couple of months
and you know, I won't say it was all negative
and I won't say it was all positive.
It definitely was a moment in my life for me to sit back
and reflect on me in what I can do better and grow.
The tattoo Phil gave me today was this piece on the inside.
It says "Scratch all day, match all weight."
Phillip: Considering all the things going on in his life,
you know, he's not going to give up.
He's not going to lay it out.
He's going to continue fighting and that's what that means.
For him not to give up.
Von: No matter the weight class, you know I could step up to the occasion
or go down to the occasion.
It doesn't matter to me.
Scratch all day, match all weight.
1% is 1% of the population that has the mentality
and I think that's what I've done.
I spend a lot of time with my strength conditioning coach every single day
and that's what he would tell me everyday,
scratch all day, match all weight.
It just stuck with me.
(piano playing)
(drumming)