Last year, twenty-two of my closest mates and I won the premiership. We were the second best team in the league all season, and managed to claw our way to the finish line through sheer determination, camaraderie and persistence. It was a story for the ages, and I am very lucky to have been a part of it. As premierships don’t come around too often, the team and I decided almost immediately that we would each get a tattoo to commemorate the victory.
Designing the tattoo took us a couple of months because we had to get it absolutely right. Would we tattoo the premiership up and the year on us? Would we tattoo our team logo instead? Would we find tattoo artists near Melbourne to design a tattoo for us? It was definitely a long process, but a necessary one.
As a group, we came away with one of the best tattoo designs anyone has ever seen. I remember when I showed my girlfriend, she genuinely teared up at the design. That’s when you know you’ve done something right. Collectively we decided that we could all put the tattoo where we wanted, rather than everyone having it in the same place. Lots of blokes chose their ankles or their biceps, but I chose my heart, because this premiership and team means more to me than most things ever will.
All twenty-two of us got the tattoo done on the end of season trip at a tattoo studio. Brisbane in October is a great place for a celebratory sports trip, because the surf’s up, the weather’s hot and the beers are cold. I’m so glad we’ve been able to commemorate one of the best days of all our lives, together as a team. These men are my brothers for life, and it pleases me to no end that we will now be connected forever, both physically and mentally.