This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Andrei Kirilenko used to have a monkey on his back.

A max-contract monkey.

Now, as you might have heard, he has a dragon.

A very large dragon, with what looks to be a man riding it — like Ron Turcotte on Secretariat coming down the stretch at Pimlico.

It's a beast of a back tat. A bad back tat. An ink-stained wretch.

Kirilenko says he likes his tattoo. Maybe that's why he missed so many jumpers last season. He's a blind man.

As a normal course, I make no judgments on such bits of artistic expression by athletes. They can sport whatever they want on the vast canvases of their own skin, and, in these modern times, they do.

It's space that is so up-close-and-personal, only they can decide for themselves what kind of meaningful mural they will have needled into their epidermis. Consequential stuff, such as …

Lips on the side of the neck (Kenyon Martin), Diesel and Man of Steel and the Superman logo on the arm (Shaq), Young Money (Brandon Jennings) and Chosen 1 (LeBron James) across the top of the back, Beast (LeBron) and a butterfly (Kobe Bryant) on the upper arm, a picture of Fred Flintstone dunking a ball on the leg (Greg Ostertag), a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, bordered with the numeral 5 on each side on the front of the neck (DeShawn Stevenson), White Boy across the fingers (Jason Williams), feathers and letters and chains and Chinese symbols on nearly every body part (Chris Andersen), and who knows what — graffiti? — all over (Dennis Rodman).

Although somebody estimated that better than 80 percent of the players in the NBA have visible tats — and that estimate is conservative — athletes in all sports have joined in the fun.

Laila Ali has a teddy bear. Hines Ward has Mickey Mouse high-stepping and stiff-arming. Michael Phelps has the Olympic rings. Danica Patrick has a flag. Jeremy Shockey has a big, patriotic bald eagle. Mike Tyson has a graphic on the left side of his face.

Apparently, tattooing stems back thousands of years to ancient cultures all around the globe that used the marking for purposes ranging from safeguards for women during pregnancy and birth to men boasting a certain level of status to marking criminals and prostitutes to connecting with deity to attempting to become more attractive to the opposite sex to simply trying to look like a badass.

Not sure that inking Fred Flintstone into your leg accomplishes any of the above, but it's safe to say that many athletes — and people from all walks of life — are trying to communicate something to somebody.

Kirilenko says he did it for himself.

Against the backdrop of researchers trying to decipher exactly what certain symbols found on 5,000-year-old mummies mean, we all have to laugh at the prospects of future researchers discovering the remains of, say, Rodman, and trying to shake loose what in the name of heaven and earth the man was trying to say.

It could be profound.

It could be nonsense.

It could be deep.

It could be … hey, stupid, made you look!

When it comes to body art, one man's bold statement is another man's question: Were you drunk when you got that?

Kirilenko's dark dragon covers the entirety of his back, draping over his shoulder and down his arms. It is massive and dramatic, especially considering this is his first visible tattoo. You've got to hand it to Andrei — he went all the way. No pussyfooting around here. He rolled into his local parlor and said: "Go all out, man."

I'm saying it would be a nice piece of craftsmanship … if it were in a comic book or on the cover of a nerdy video game or on a freeway overpass. You have to wonder if he'll still like the thing — I call it, "Dude On a Dragon" — in 30 years.

Most of the early feedback from the outside seems to have been negative. SI.com's Andy Gray labeled Kirilenko's DOAD "one of the worst tattoos in sports history."

The first thought when I saw it was: "What the hell?"

Put it to your own test. My money says you'll wonder where the checkpoints were in Kirilenko's life — hello, Masha? — who are supposed to step in and save him from himself when he comes up with such a dumb idea.

But — I know, I know — it's personal.

A man has to decide for himself. And, sweet mother of mine, Andrei did.

Gordon Monson hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 104.7 FM/1280 AM The Zone.