Soccer player has controversial 'Love' tattoo spelled out in weapons

Seeing a pro athlete who doesn't have at least a few tattoos inked on his body these days is about as rare as seeing Tim Tebow start for the New York Jets. Coincidence? I don't think so.

One British soccer player has taken his body art to a new — and maybe ill-advised — level by getting the word "Love" permanently inked into his body spelled out in weapons.

Queens Park Rangers striker Jay Bothroyd has created quite a stir across the pond by having a pistol, grenade, flick-knife and machine gun spell out the letters on one side of his torso.

Soccer fans reacted angrily to the interesting, but controversial, tattoo. Many saw the photo Bothroyd posted on Instagram and claimed it was promoting crime.

One fan posted: "Int [sic] there enough knifes in London?" while another wrote"You're a footballer not a gangster."

Bothroyd has been slumping of late and spent the start of the season on loan at Sheffield Wednesday.

The 30-year-old fired back at the claims of promoting violence by telling the Sun: "The meaning is you have to fight for love. It reads "Love" if some people can't see. More than anything it's artistic."

He deleted the picture from his Instagram account after the criticism... shame he can't do the same with the dodgy ink, wrote DailyMail.com.