Louis Tattoo

Sometime last season, we all started noticing that Henry would kiss his right wrist after scoring a goal. (If only he was kissing his wrist more often this season, but anyway...) After much speculation on what the symbolism/meaning of his celebration, we finally found out that he had a "lucky" tattoo on that wrist and this post on the venerable old fcbtransfersblog confirmed it.

The name of the man who gave him the tattoo goes by Luis Tattoo, a man who doesn't even like football but is good friends with Carles Puyol and has done work on the captain and many other Barça players and even coaches. Here's a link to his website, lots of pics there.

And I made a rather flippant promise here that if Barça won the triplete, I would get a tat from the man. I almost forgot all about it when I was there until I saw the "Revolution Square" on a map in Gracia. After wandering around in circles for a little bit, we finally found the tiny plaza and the parlor located at number 13:



Walked in, not really knowing what to expect. The girl behind the counter asked if I wanted to make an appointment, I asked her what she had, she said July! I told her I was only in town for the week, and already in my mind I thought, oh well, at least I gave it the old college try. She asked what I had in mind and I said I wanted just a small simple wrist tattoo a la Henry. She checked the book once more and said, if I was really cool with it being something small and simple, he could squeeze me in for exactly one hour that afternoon at 4:30, right after siesta. Yes!!

As outlined in the blog post above, she told me about the process: I would have to write a personal letter about whatever I wanted, he would then read the letter and interpret it into his vision for a tattoo. His specialty is in polynesian symbols, she said, and in Europe there were only three tattoo artists who are considered experts (him, a guy in Ibiza, and a guy in Iceland I think). I didn't know what to say so I said, well, I'm practically polynesian. "Muy bien," she said and smiled, showing off her small hoop piercing in the gums above her two front teeth.

So off we went back to our rented flat, I took a short nap, woke up, and banged out a letter in 15 minutes, writing it all in CAPS because my handwriting is terrible. I get to the shop, sit down with the man, and he reads the letter. Then he sketched a design on my wrist, explaining the three symbols that he had incorporated into it. Finally, he set up the table and went to work. We talked a lot about traveling, he shared his stories about Costa Rica, where he had just come from, while I winced every time the needle went close to my wrist bone.

This is the pic I snapped before he wrapped up my wrist. Not bad for an hour:



The hour over with, I took one last glance at all the pics he had with Barça stars. Right at the end, he asked me where we were from. I told him we was from California, only going to be in town for the week, and he invited us out that night to the Liceu to see a rare performance from a famous flamenco dancer, but unfortunately we had to decline. He really is a sweet man.