Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
LaMelo Ball’s youngest sibling vibes are always on full display, thanks to his flashy style of play and the hilarious hot mic moments he shares with us on court.
His personality is also shown through his tattoos, and he recently trolled the internet with his *alleged* new one.
It all started when tattoo artist Elvis Ramos posted a picture to his Instagram stories with a caption that read “gave @melo the hot chee toes.”
Of course, it was a play on the snack, Cheetos, and the attached photos showed exactly that, a freshly tatted foot with fiery red toes and the orange and black embers of the flame going up the top of the foot.
Thanks to Ramos’ 20,000 followers, the post quickly went viral, and though Melo let the frenzy build and didn’t say he was joking, the tattoo artist came clean in a follow-up video.
“So we did tattoo LaMelo Ball. But those hot chee toes? Those were not on Melo, we were just trolling,” Ramos admitted. The original artist is actually out of California also, but nah, we didn’t do that on Melo.”
While that tat wasn’t on Melo, he did reveal that his team is working on a leg sleeve for the Charlotte Hornets point guard.
Melo later previewed the fresh ink on his Instagram, which showed off five of his dogs’ faces on his calf and other designs up his entire thigh, done by four artists over two days
Melo’s known for his extensive tattoo collection and underwent a series of sessions with a group of artists to have his entire back done. The design features “Rare One” across his shoulders, “1 of 1” across the bottom, and an alien in the middle. The same group came together a year later to knock out his chest and sides.
This isn’t the first time Melos Ink has been the subject of controversy. In 2024, the league made him cover up the LF tattoo behind his ear —short for LaFrance, which is his middle name and clothing brand— because the NBA says “players are prohibited from displaying commercial logos or corporate insignia on their body or in their hair during games.”
Even though Melo didn’t get the snack-inspired tat, see social media’s reaction to it below.
