David Beckham has over 40 tattoos inked into his skin, collected over his 41 years as an extremely handsome human and athlete. They include tributes to his four children and his wife Victoria, religious iconography, and a horse's head. They run up his chest, across his shoulders, and down his arms, winding their way through his fingers. They are, on a global scale, infamous.
That's as good a reason as any to use them for good.
Beckham became a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef UK in 2005, and in 2015, he launched the David Beckham Unicef Fund to combat violence against children. According to Unicef, nearly a billion children worldwide are physically punished by a caregiver every year, and more are subjected to sexual violence and emotional abuse. Monday, Unicef released a video showing Beckham's tattoos come to life, depicting situations in which children are at risk, threatened by relatives, other children, and strangers. It's dark.
The metaphor, if you haven't caught on, is that violence marks a child forever, just like a tattoo. Heavy. And, to be clear, those aren't Beckham's real tattoos. His skin is reserved for cursive script and Jesus.
