I got this photo at the CFT inbox with a short description:
Matthias: My name is Matthias, I’m from Germany, and I visited Chicago a few weeks ago. I became a fan of Chicago quite a few years ago, with the history, all the sports, the architecture etc. When I visited Chicago it was my first time, but won’t be my last. I knew before my trip, that i’d like to get a tattoo. I’ve attached a picture of it with this email.
Regards
Matthias
To which my reaction was, of course, what the what? He visited Chicago for the first time and got a tattoo while he was here? That’s pretty hardcore. I shot off an email asking, basically, what the what? and got back this great story:
Matthias: So I’ll just tell you a little bit about myself: My name is Matthias, I am 29 years old and I live in a little town in the mountains in the very south of Germany, pretty close to the Austrian border. For quite a long time I’ve been a huge fan of Chicago, and I don’t remember exactly with what it started.
I think it was when I first watched a game of the Chicago Cubs on TV about 9 years ago. Since then I found out that a few of my favorite music bands came from Chicago, like Hot Water Music and Lawrence Arms. During the time I got more into the other sport teams from as well, the Bulls, Blackhawks and the Bears. I am a huge wrestling fan and one of my favorites is CM Punk. I spent more time over the years reading about the history and the landscape and the architecture of Chicago. I was quite interested in it. I knew a lot about the city before I had even been there.
For a couple of years I have been self employed and vacations were getting short - no wait. There weren’t any. In four years I didn’t take a vacation. So last year I decided to do otherwise and flew for a week to Chicago. I had great expectations, so I decided if I wasn’t disappointed I would get a tattoo.
And as you can see, I wasn’t!!
On my last day, just a few hours before I flew home, I had an appointment at Metamorph Studios with Picasso Dular. And he made a hell of a job, I am still so happy with it, every time I look at my arm.
I had lots of ideas for the tattoo, but he said we should just use two: the Chicago flag and ivy from Wrigley Field. Maybe the next time I have the time to visit Chicago, which will be hopefully soon, I’ll get the other ideas on my arm.
