You’ve seen the photos from 2020. A massive, "clean-skinned" heavyweight from Salford making his UFC debut and looking like a guy who just wandered out of a local rugby match and decided to knock someone out. For a long time, the phrase Tom Aspinall no tattoos was basically a meme in the MMA community. While other heavyweights were showing up with giant chest pieces of lions or tribal sleeves that stopped at the wrist, Tom looked like he was keeping it old school.
But if you look at him today—specifically his back or his arms—the "no tattoo" era is officially dead.
Honestly, the transformation has been pretty wild to watch. It wasn't that he was against ink or trying to maintain some "pure" image like Fedor Emelianenko. The reality is much more relatable: he had some really bad tattoos, and he’s spent the last few years trying to fix them.
The Myth of the Tattoo-Free Champion
People used to lump Tom Aspinall in with guys like Khabib Nurmagomedov or Islam Makhachev—fighters who don't have tattoos for religious or cultural reasons. But Tom isn't part of that club. If you go back to his early days in Cage Warriors or his very first UFC outings, you’ll notice he actually did have ink. It was just small, faded, or hidden.
He recently admitted he got his first tattoo when he was only 15. Think about that for a second. A 15-year-old kid in Salford getting a tribal piece on his arm. He used to hide it under his school uniform and walk around thinking he was the "hardest man on earth." We’ve all been there, right? Doing something slightly regrettable as a teenager because we thought it looked cool.
The reason the Tom Aspinall no tattoos search trended for so long is that his early ink was pretty unremarkable. It didn't define his look. He wasn't "the guy with the tattoos." He was just the fast guy who moved like a middleweight.
What’s Actually On His Skin Now?
If you’ve seen him lately, you know the "clean" look is gone. He’s spent over 70 hours under the needle.
His most famous piece now is the massive Foo Dog on his back. In Chinese culture, Foo Dogs are imperial guardian lions—protectors of the home and the family. Tom has been vocal about how he views himself as a protector of his own family, so the symbolism fits perfectly. But in typical Aspinall fashion, he also admitted that he mostly got it because "it looks cool."
The Journey of the Cover-Ups
Tom’s tattoo history is basically a list of "what not to do" in your teens:
- The Schoolboy Tribal: That original piece from age 15 has been covered up four times. He eventually just blacked the whole arm out because the previous attempts to fix it didn't work.
- The "Money" Clock: This is one of the weirdest ones. He used to have a clock on his back, but instead of numbers, it had currency symbols—dollars, euros, pounds. He liked the idea that you can never balance time and money. Eventually, he got bored of it and covered the whole thing with the Foo Dog.
- The Neck and Chest: This is the part that has fans divided. He’s currently working on a massive piece that extends from his chest up to his neck. It features a gladiator standing at the gates of a coliseum.
It's actually kind of funny—as he’s become more successful in the UFC, he’s become more "inked." It’s like the more money he makes, the more he tries to erase the "bad" tattoos of his youth.
Why Do We Care if Fighters Have Tattoos?
It’s a branding thing, mostly. In the UFC, your body is your billboard. When you think of Conor McGregor, you think of the gorilla on his chest. When you think of Sean Strickland, you think of... well, the complete lack of tattoos, which he says is because he doesn't want to be easily identified if he ever commits a crime (classic Sean).
For Tom, having "no tattoos" (or at least no visible ones early on) made him stand out. He looked like an "everyman." He looked like a guy you’d see at the pub who just happened to be the most dangerous human being on the planet.
Now that he’s covered in blackwork and intricate Japanese/Chinese style art, he looks more like a traditional "fighter." Does it change how he fights? Obviously not. But it changes how the casual audience perceives him. He went from looking like a PE teacher to looking like a final boss in a video game.
What Most People Get Wrong About Aspinall's Look
The biggest misconception is that he started getting tattoos because he became famous.
Actually, he’s been getting tattooed his whole life. He just didn't have the money for the "good" stuff early on. He’s mentioned that his right arm is a "journey." He had tribal, then a different kind of tribal, then a Polynesian style, and now it’s basically a blackout sleeve with white ink over the top.
If you're still searching for "Tom Aspinall no tattoos," you're looking at a version of him that doesn't exist anymore. He’s fully embraced the ink culture, though he’s the first to admit that some of his choices—like the money clock—were a bit "wild."
The Actionable Takeaway for Fans and Aspiring Artists
If you're looking at Tom's journey and thinking about your own ink, here’s the "Aspinall Strategy":
- Don't rush the big pieces. Tom is 32 now and finally getting the back and chest work he actually likes.
- Cover-ups are expensive and painful. He spent 70+ hours fixing mistakes from his teens. Save your money and go to a pro the first time.
- Meaning matters, but "cool" is fine too. Don't feel like every tattoo needs a 10-minute backstory. If you like a Foo Dog because it looks hard, get the Foo Dog.
Tom is currently the interim heavyweight champion and likely the future of the division. Whether he’s got a clean back or a full suit of armor, the speed and the power stay the same. He’s just a lot more colorful now when he’s standing over a knocked-out opponent.
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Next Steps for the Aspinall Obsessed:
If you want to see the "before and after" for yourself, go back and watch his UFC debut against Jake Collier and then compare it to his latest title defense. The difference in his physical appearance is staggering, but the technical dominance? That’s been there since day one. Keep an eye on his social media too—he’s still finishing that neck piece, and it’s likely going to look completely different by his next walk to the octagon.