Several, though, stand out as special, including one on his chest that reads, “Dream and do it.” His body became his vision board.

“That was always a mantra I lived by, to believe that the crazy goals I have for myself are possible if I was just willing to put the amount of work in,” he said. “Then there are the Olympic rings. As soon as I made the team, I went and got the rings, on my left arm. … And then about four or five months later, I became an Olympic gold medalist.”

There is one more hill for Burroughs to climb in his storied career: qualifying for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, a feat made more challenging with his loss to Chance Marsteller in the non-Olympic 79 kg. weight class at the Final X last month in Newark, New Jersey. The defeat meant he did not qualify for the world championships to be held in September in Belgrade, Serbia.

“I am changing weight classes; for the last three years, I’ve wrestled at 79 kilos, or 174 pounds,” Burroughs said. “And now I’m going back down to where I won my Olympic gold medal, which is 163 pounds (or 74 kg.). And I just got on a scale and I’m at 187 pounds, and so I’ve got some work to do.”

Time, once again, to dream it and do it.

For the last 10 years or so, though, slipping into a tattoo parlor on a whim has been off the table. Since tying the knot in 2013 with with Lauren, a writer, Jordan’s tattoos are joint decisions.

“The bulk of my tattoos were done pre-marriage, but now — my wife, she has to stare at them, too,” Burroughs says with a laugh. “And she’s like, ‘I don’t know if I want you totally covered, I like your bare skin.’ But for me, it’s one of the few ways in which you can always express yourself in a permanent way.”

One of the tattoos Lauren fully endorses is that commemorating each of the couple’s children: son Beacon, age 9; daughter Ora, 7; daughter Rise, 3; and son Banner, 2. Both Beacon and Ora wrestle. The family recently moved from Nebraska back to the east coast, where Jordan trains at the University of Pennsylvania in downtown Philadelphia.

“The (tattoos) I have in reference to our little ones are really important to me,” he said.

But how will he react if his kids start asking for ink of their own?

As it happens, that question comes up sooner, rather than later. Hearing dad’s conversation with this reporter, Ora cried out, “I want one!”

“That’s my daughter — I think both (Beacon and Ora) want one,” Burroughs said, a bit ruefully. “Because they see their dad with them, and they see their favorite athletes with them.”

And it seems as if that long-ago debate Jordan had with his own parents may reemerge, this time with pre-adolescents.

“I’m still in a space where I don’t know if I want to give them freedom to make their own decision, but I’m probably going to push them to not get tattoos,” he says.

For now, at least.

For Jordan Burroughs, Every Tattoo Tells Its Own Story

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