So Rafa has a few tats when he gets to BYU, he plays his Junior season and is photographed repeatedly--with the tats he brought to Provo.
Then, in the following off-season, two things happen in parallel: Rafa gets more tats, and BYU produces media guide for the upcoming season.
After that, Rafa's Senior season begins, someone at the Trib (I don't remember who it was) reads the new media guide, sees the pictures from Rafa's Junior season, notices that he has more tats now than what he had in the pictures in the media guide, and the rest is history.