WWE superstar Roman Reigns recently sat down for an interview with Inked Magazine, during which he discussed how his tattoos represent his family and culture and why it’s so important to him.
According to Reigns, his infatuation with tattoos is thanks to his cousin, former WWE star Umaga.
“It all revolves around our cousin Eki – Umaga. At the time, he was a big WWE Superstar and he passed away way too early, but he was the one that was the fuel behind us getting tatted up. He had this lady back in Pensacola that was kind of hooking him up, giving him a little bit of a discount here and there, and he was getting a lot of work done at the time. He was just showing her different prints and trying to give her the heads-up of our culture, and the customs, and the patterns, and the sequences that kind of fit and how they mold together.”
Reigns' family is one of the most storied in the wrestling business, and includes his brother Rosey, and his father Sika and uncle Afa who formed the Wild Samoans tag team. In addition to Umaga, Reigns is the cousin of legends such as Yokozuna, Rikishi and The Headshrinkers tag team - not to mention, The Rock and The Usos.
Many of them had tattoos similar to Reigns, and you can tell he is extremely proud to represent for the Samoan culture.
“For me, [the tattoo] represents our culture,” Reigns explains. “It represents that I am one of the sons of Samoa. I’m one of the sons of the Pacific. You see all my cousins with them. On a night like Monday Night, [on] Raw you see the Usos come out. They’re representing our culture. And you see me come out. We’re represented throughout a three-hour broadcast multiple times.
“I think every time that we get to be around our culture, or we get to run into anybody that is from a familiar background or ethnicity, they always love how we represent,” Reigns continues. “For me, it’s just a representation of our people, of our bloodline, within the wrestling world and just our family in general. We’re very proud of it.”
Check out the full video below.