T206 Cards Become Popular to PC on Your Body
Chris Torres always wanted to get a tattoo. He just didn’t know what it would be.
But Torres knew it had to be something that played a special role in his life.
Torres’ love for tobacco cards escalated when he started collecting 1909-11 T206 Polar Bear back cards. During his journey of completing the rare Polar Bear set, Torres soaked up stories behind the players and their cards.
Torres became so attached to the set in his PC at home, he wanted to pay homage by having a permanent reminder. What went from one card tattooed on his arm transitioned into both his arms being completely sleeved with tobacco cards and elements. There probably aren’t many collectors who can say they literally wear their PC on their arms.
“When I was working on my Polar Bear set and then finishing it, I realized that so few people have actually completed that set,” said Torres, who is a Seattle native. “I know I really like the cards. I like the art. I just like the story behind it—the personal journey of learning about players and putting a set together.”
T206 Tattoo Treasures
Receiving a referral from a former co-worker, Torres linked up with Stephanie Flannery to ink his tattoos.
During her 14 years as a tattoo artist, Flannery had never transformed trading cards into tattoos. The biggest challenge for Flannery was doing so many portraits.
“I don’t often do portraits,” she said. “When Chris originally came to me, he showed me one of the cards. Not knowing anything about the whole collection, I was like, ‘Yeah, I can do this card. I can definitely recreate this.’ This was his first tattoo. We didn’t originally plan on a whole sleeve, it was one tattoo. Then immediately the ball started rolling into a sleeve. I had no idea what I was kind of biting off at first when I took on his original idea. But I couldn’t have been more stoked on the project, and also it being on him and who he is and how passionate he is. It couldn’t have gone on anybody cooler and more fitting for this project.”
Starting on his left arm in January 2023, the first tattoo Torres had done was the back of a Polar Bear card and its description. A large polar bear image not associated with the card was added to the tattoo. Intrigued by how the image turned out, Torres decided to sleeve his entire arm with specific cards from his journey of completing the Polar Bear set.
Torres picked out five main player cards to be featured on the arm.
“Frank Chance was my first ever Polar Bear,” Torres said. “You cannot talk about Polar Bear or you cannot do the set without picking up the two most expensive cards in the entire set, which are Ray Demmitt and Bill O’Hara. You can only buy Demmitt and O’Hara in Polar Bear. Del Howard was the player that I learned about through discovery and research of the set that I took his card to his gravesite. That was a personal moment, because he’s buried here in Seattle. Christy Mathewson was my first purchase of any player who was in the very first Hall of Fame class.”
Torres’ arm also features Polar Bear cards of Ty Cobb, Solly Hofman, Harry Hinchman, Howie Camnitz, Bill Clancy, and the bottom of Hal Chase’s card, where he’s holding a trophy. Overlaying the entire arm is the sunset from Cobb’s bat off shoulder card.
After Torres’ left arm was completed in September 2023, he decided to sleeve his entire right arm as well.
“This arm was more of a nod in that I just love the artwork of that time period: early Americana,” Torres said. “It’s a very different time period in America, even though it was only 110 years ago.”
There are three main elements to the tattoos on this arm. There is an Old Mill tobacco package; the back of an Old Mill Southern League card—which is on the back of Torres’ forearm; and then Dolly Stark, Torres’ favorite Southern Leaguer, who is on his inner forearm.
Well Worth His Time
To get both arms inked completely, Torres spent about 55 hours in Flannery’s tattoo chair during nearly a two-year period. To Torres, it was well worth his time.
“They look phenomenal,” he said. “I didn’t do it to have people stop me or say hi. I did it for me; it’s a personal story. But it’s a story I like to talk about. I really appreciate anyone who says anything.”
Said Flannery: “Chris was the mastermind behind everything that was put into the sleeve. I just was the person to be like, OK, this is how we make it tattooable and it will look good over time. It definitely was a team effort from beginning to end.”
Flannery, who with her husband co-own Alder & Ash Tattoo in Bellevue, Washington, picked the Chance card as her favorite tattoo on the sleeves.
“My eye just gets drawn to that one specifically,” Flannery said. “I think just the color palette in that and how vintage it looks is really, really cool. The first one we did was the Polar Bear on the outer upper arm as well. I think that one just being like the original and it encompasses the whole Polar Bear theme, that one’s a close runner-up for me.”
Commemorating the Wagner
Collecting has been important for Mike Bridenstine for nearly 40 years. He wanted to commemorate his love for The Hobby by getting a tattoo.
But what card did Bridenstine want inked on his arm for eternity?
“I guess I was like, what is the most famous card? I just wanted a baseball card,” Bridenstine said. “So, since I was a kid it was always the T206 Wagner. I think the story behind his card is interesting. To me, that was just the most iconic baseball card there was.”
Bridenstine, a 45-year-old comedian based in Los Angeles, found a tattoo artist to fulfill his request. Mike Padilla had never done a baseball card tattoo before; he was used to tattooing clients with just black ink.
“My tattoo artist was like, ‘Is this like a baseball card?’” Bridenstine said. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ And then he goes, ‘Oh, I thought it was like a Civil War general.’”
With its orange background and Wagner sitting in a portrait-style pose, the tattoo is fairly simple—just like the card design—but very impactful.
“This is the only way that I’ll probably ever get one of those Wagners,” Bridenstine joked. “Now I have one. If I had to grade it, I’d say it’s a PSA 10. Wayne Gretzky doesn’t have this.”
The tattoo artist made the Wagner a little larger than the actual card.
“I like it,” Bridenstine said. “I’m going to have it the rest of my life, I better like it. I thought he did a great job.”
Bridenstine just got the tattoo done last November. He isn’t sure if he will add to his tattoo collection anytime soon.
“I could see myself getting like a Babe Ruth Goudey or a Mickey Mantle,” Bridenstine said. “My dad, his favorite player is Mike Schmidt. Getting a Schmidt, that would be cool.”
