The conventional methods for showing off your collection usually involve showing photos of shelves full of treasures on social media or some other online website.
For collector Chris Torres of Seattle, his card collection goes everywhere he goes. That’s because Torres tattooed T206 cards with Polar Bear backs on his left arm so he can show off his collection just about anywhere.
It’s an interest in one of the more rare brands of cigarettes that occupy the backs of some T206 that’s led to some colorful artwork.
“The Polar Bear means a lot to me,” Torres told SC Daily. “The slogan, ‘Is Now, Always Has Been, Always Will Be,’ is so different. It’s dark blue, and the only cards (that were) sold in a tobacco pouch. The cards also sometimes come with bits of tobacco on them.”
T206 Journey
Torres made his first T206 purchases at the 2019 Chicago National, which was also his first time attending the event after collecting for over 20 years.
Torres bought cards of Frank Chance, Solly Hofman, and Harry Hinchman to commemorate the trip. Chance stood out for the Cubs, gaining induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Hofman played 10 seasons for the Cubs.
The cards also set Torres on a journey to build a T206 set, which he eventually refined to a Polar Bear subset. But after chasing Polar Bear backs for a few years, he felt his passion leveling off.
“I was getting cards in the mail and not bothering to open them up,” Torres said. “I’ve always really liked tattoo work, but I didn’t want to do anything random.”
After a year of planning, Torres – who had never gotten a tattoo – thought of full-sleeve artwork featuring a Polar Bear card back and the T206 depictions of Ray Demmitt, Bill O’Hara, and Chance.
Before getting the permanent artwork on his skin, Torres’s biggest worry was finding an artist with the skills to replicate the century-old baseball cards.
“I didn’t want to go to some random person because the cards are portraits, and they’re incredibly difficult to do,” Torres said.
Eventually, Torres found artist Stephanie Flannery of Alder & Ash Tattoo in Seattle, who he describes as “nothing short of amazing.”
“I knew I wanted a sleeve, so I kept giving Stephanie images of what I wanted,” Torres said. “I went back and forth with her multiple times. She put the cards together, placed them on my arm, and told me what was good and not good. Having Frank Chance right there on my forearm was so important.”
More Additions
As his left arm was filled in with the first three cards, Torres and Flannery kept collaborating on the sleeve. So one month later, Christy Mathewson and Del Howard were inked in. Two months later, Hal Chase, Howie Camnitz, Bill Clancy, Ty Cobb, and an original Polar Bear tobacco tin were added.
To their surprise, there were still two open spots, which were filled in with Hofman and Hinchman – two of the first three T206s he ever bought in Chicago in 2019. Torres still owns the cards, and while they do not have Polar Bear backs, they have a special place in his collection.
Altogether, the tattoos flow down Torres’s arm in a dream-like sequence, as if the cards are taking turns in a child’s View Master.
“I originally was going to only have Polar Bear-related cards on my arm, but as we mapped out the final design two weeks ago, two spots opened up, and I couldn’t think of two better cards to add,” Torres wrote on Twitter in March. “Without these two purchases nearly four years ago, there is a great chance that I never end up getting this deep into T206 and then exclusively Polar Bear.”
But Torres makes it a point to highlight the five most important Polar Bear cards on his sleeve, and their significance to him:
- Frank Chance – The first Polar Bear card he ever bought in 2019 along with Hinchman and Hofman.
- Demmitt and O’Hara – They each have two cards in the T206 set because they were traded mid-year from New York (AL and NL) to St. Louis. Their St. Louis versions only come in Polar Bear backs and are considered very scarce.
- Christy Mathewson – Torres’s first big-name Polar Bear purchase three years ago for $255, which he laughs about now.
- Del Howard – In his research, Torres found out Howard was buried in Seattle. He visited his gravesite and took his T206 card with him during the visit.
Just checking out by good friend Frank Chance at the @HuntAuctions Capital One Play Ball Park in #Seattle! #MLBAllStarGame pic.twitter.com/am936tZkw5
— CRT_Sportscards (@CRT_Sportscards) July 9, 2023
Other Collectors with Tattoos
Sports tattoos are by no means unique. Fans have been getting “ink” of their favorite players and teams since tattooing started gaining popularity in the mid-20th century.
Recently, hobby enthusiasts have made sure to specifically tattoo iconic card images. There have been examples of Honus Wagner and Roberto Clemente sports card tattoos.
One collector, Matt Donovan, tattooed the Upper Deck logo on his upper leg in 2015. Donovan chose the UD logo because it was a reminder of his childhood and the time spent with his older brother breaking packs and collecting cards together. When he got his tattoo, an article was written about it on the Beckett website.
“I was pretty guarded when I first got it,” Donovan told SC Daily. “I remember the day the article came out. I jumped onto a card forum and there were a lot of people talking about it, making derogatory comments about the tattoo and myself.
“As time passed, I became more comfortable with it and grown more fond of it. My older brother passed away unexpectedly last October. I think about all the good times I spent with my brother, the friendship I developed with [UD Head of Customer Experience] Chris Carlin, and my ‘holy grail’ that I want to add to my collection.”
Christopher Tinker, whose great-grandfather was baseball hall-of-famer Joe Tinker, had his great-grandad’s T206 card tattooed on his left forearm. Christopher, who passed away three years ago, was profiled in the New York Times.
He never met his great-grandad but had his T206 card tattooed on his arm after losing an original copy he once bought for $200.
“I thought, ‘What could be cooler to memorialize my great-grandfather than ink on my skin?’” Christopher told the New York Times in 2013. “People would see it, ask about it, and I’d get to talk about him and bring him back to life, in a way.”
The Right Arm
Today, Torres has 248 of 250 T206 Polar Bear backs. He still needs Demmitt and the Cobb red portrait, both of which live on his left arm. The Demmitt and Cobb are some of the most expensive cards in the Polar Bear subset. A Demmitt PSA 1 sold for $4,8000, and a Cobb PSA 1.5 recently sold for $4,150.
Now that his left arm is complete, Torres is thinking about his next project – the right arm. He is considering tattooing an image of an Old Mill cigarette package with the accompanying cards.
But for now, Torres is happy to talk about his tattoos to anyone that asks because it gives him a chance to share his collection. He’s on Twitter where he has nearly 5,000 followers. You might even run into him at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention where he’s hoping to find the last two cards he needs to complete his Polar Bear collection. It would be a fitting end to a journey that started in the same place nearly four years ago.
“What I’ve done probably hasn’t been done to this degree,” Torres said. “But it means a lot to me because I can speak to people about the cards and my journey.”
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