Coughlin’s entire back is covered with a tattoo of Saint Michael, which he got right before the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in honor of his late mother, Stacy.

Saint Michael, you see, is the patron saint of police officers, and Coughlin’s father, Mike, has been a member of the Kansas City Police Department for more than 30 years. Stacy Coughlin would pray to the saint to keep her husband safe while he was on the job.

“It has a great deal of meaning for me,” Coughlin said Wednesday. “I wanted something to remember my mom by.”

Coughlin’s mother died in 2010, a few months before he and former partner Caitlin Yankowskas won their first national title. He won a second title the following year with current partner Caydee Denney.

Coughlin said the tattoo took about 10 hours, spread over three sessions. It took one session just to do the outline of the winged saint slaying a dragon, and two more to do the shading.

The tattoo may have great sentimental meaning, but that doesn’t mean Coughlin is whipping off his shirt any chance he gets. When someone suggested he bare his back during competition, he looked slightly horrified.

“I think that would cost us” with judges, he said.

Source: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/john-coughlin-tattoo-us-figure-skating-team/