As one Ball brother tries his best to cover up his tattoos ... another is proudly putting his ink on display -- 'cause LaMelo Ball just got a MASSIVE chest piece done, and he seems to love it!!
Of course, Lonzo Ball famously covered his Triple Bs a couple weeks ago ... but TMZ Sports has learned the same artist that did Zo's cover-up put new ink on Melo last month too.
Tattoo artist Herchell Carrasco tells us the youngest Ball brother wanted wings and his jersey number on his chest ... and says the whole piece took about 4 hours to complete.
We're told there's still about an hour of work left to be done ... but seems Melo is stoked with the art -- 'cause he made sure it was poking through his tank during his workout Thursday!!
Tattoos have been a huge topic in the Ball family -- in addition to Zo covering up the BBBs with dice a couple weeks ago ... 'memba when LaVar Ball famously flipped out over LiAngelo Ball's ink on their Facebook reality show last year??
No word yet on how Papa Ball feels about Melo's new tat ... but one thing we know for sure -- Melo's got dibs on jersey #1 now for life!!!