Following harsh reactions to his new tattoo of an assault rifle on his right leg, World Cup-bound England footballer Raheem Sterling has revealed that the depiction holds a deeper meaning.
The Manchester City player posted a picture of his right calf with an M16 tattooed on it, while in training with his team-mates at St George’s Park in preparation for the World Cup.
Online criticisms followed, especially from Lucy Cope, leader of the anti-gun movement, Mothers Against Guns, who has battled trauma following the shooting of her son, Damian, outside a club in central London in July 2002, calling the tattoo totally unacceptable.
In an interaction with journalists, she accused him of glamorising guns and demanded the tattoo be lasered off or converted and should he refuse, be dropped from the England Team.
Sterling, however, claims the tattoo is unfinished and represents his experience of losing his father to gun violence while he was only two years old and his promise never to touch a gun in his lifetime, but shoot only with his right foot.
Photo Credit: Sky News
