US national team player Alex Tuch (in the middle) has roots in Slovakia. (source: TASR/AP)
His back bears a tattoo of a double cross, very similar to that on the Slovak flag, flanked on each side with a lions holding a hockey stick.
But the tattoo is not on the back of a Slovak national hockey team player, it instead belongs to Alex Tuch, 27, who is playing for the US national team in the current World Championship.
The name GiGi is written under the cross, along with the words: The strength of a family is in its loyalty to each other.
Tuch says the tattoo serves as a reminder of the values impressed on him by his great-grandmother, who he called GiGi, who had Slovak roots.
