Michael Phelps has a small tattoo record, but the designs are easy to miss because they sit low on his hips and are usually covered by swimwear. The clearest published accounts identify two pieces: Olympic rings on the right hip and an outlined M on the left. Photos from swimming coverage show both marks, while later articles have tried to explain what the letter represents.

The subject also has a recurring visual trap. During the 2016 Rio Olympics, large purple circles appeared on Phelps’s shoulders and back. They were not new tattoos. They were the temporary marks of cupping therapy, a recovery treatment he used as an elite swimmer. Keeping those marks separate from the actual ink is essential to any accurate guide.

The Olympic rings tattoo sits on Phelps’s right hip

Phelps’s Olympic rings tattoo is placed on his right hipbone, just above the line of his swimwear. The Guardian’s 2008 Olympic photo gallery identified the rings in a training image, and later explainers connected the design to the tradition of athletes marking their Olympic participation on their skin. The location is practical as well as symbolic: the tattoo stays hidden under ordinary clothes but appears when a racing suit sits lower on the body.

The rings are an unusually direct choice for a swimmer who competed at five Olympic Games. They do not require an elaborate interpretation. The symbol identifies the event that shaped Phelps’s public career, while the placement keeps the design private outside the pool. A small photograph can make the rings look like a dark oval, so wider images should be checked against a close view before the shape is described.

Romper’s reporting says the tattoo could be legitimately claimed after an athlete had completed an Olympic Games. That detail explains why the design is tied to participation rather than simply to an ambition to compete. The tattoo does not document a specific medal count, and there is no need to force that claim onto the image. The five interlocking rings are enough.

Poolside photographs also show why the tattoo has been discussed more often than the M. Swim trunks expose the hip during competition, training and post-race photographs. A dark waistband or a change in posture can hide the lower edge, but the repeated placement remains consistent across the published images. The design is small, black and instantly linked to the Olympics.

The outlined M on the left hip remains less certain in meaning

An outlined M appears on Phelps’s left hip. Romper and other coverage have suggested that it may refer to Maryland, his home state, rather than the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan theory gained attention because Phelps trained at the school earlier in his career, but the strongest published descriptions do not establish that interpretation as a confirmed statement from Phelps.

The distinction matters because a single letter invites speculation. A photograph can show the shape and the left-hip position, but it cannot identify the private reason behind it. Maryland is a plausible reading because Phelps was born and raised there. Michigan is also part of his athletic history. Neither possibility should be presented as settled unless Phelps gives a direct explanation.

The Vanishing Tattoo poolside image is useful because it places the two hip tattoos in the same frame. The M is small and partly close to the swimwear line, so the image does not support a detailed claim about font or later alterations. It does establish that the mark belongs to the same compact group as the rings and that both were visible during the period when Phelps dominated Olympic swimming.

This design also shows why tattoo guides need an uncertainty label. Calling it the Maryland M may be a useful shorthand, but it changes a reported theory into a fact. The careful description is an outlined M on the left hip, with Maryland as a commonly reported interpretation. That phrasing gives readers the information without pretending that the record contains a definitive interview answer.

The famous circular marks on Phelps’s back were cupping, not tattoos

Phelps’s Rio photographs created a second tattoo question when large red and purple circles appeared across his back and shoulders. The marks came from cupping therapy, not ink. AS and Scripps News explained that the treatment uses suction cups and can leave temporary circular bruises. The circles therefore do not belong in the tattoo inventory.

The confusion is understandable because the marks were unusually visible against a swimmer’s bare skin. They also appeared during a major Olympic competition, when photographers were already focused on Phelps’s body and preparation. A tattoo is permanent body art; a cupping mark is a temporary treatment effect. The images look different once that distinction is known.

Separating the two subjects makes the tattoo record smaller but stronger. The Olympic rings and the M are the two documented tattoos most consistently identified in published coverage. The cupping photographs explain a famous visual moment, but they do not add another design to Phelps’s skin.

Michael Phelps’s tattoos are therefore defined by restraint: one Olympic symbol, one outlined letter and a great deal of privacy created by their placement. The rings have an obvious athletic context. The M remains open to a careful Maryland interpretation rather than a forced conclusion. When the temporary cupping marks are removed from the count, the evidence becomes much clearer.

The low placement also shapes how the designs are photographed. A swimmer spends much of a race in a suit that covers the hips, and ordinary portraits rarely show enough skin to identify a small mark. That is why the earliest Olympic gallery and the later family photograph do so much work in the published record. They catch the tattoos in moments when Phelps is either preparing to swim or holding his newborn son, rather than posing for a dedicated tattoo catalogue.

The two pieces should be dated carefully. The rings were visible in Beijing-era coverage, while the M received renewed attention during the Rio period. That does not prove the letter was new in 2016. It only shows when the public had a useful photograph. The distinction keeps the timeline honest and avoids turning an old tattoo into a sudden Olympic-era addition.