How to celebrate the Stanley Cup? Some fans choose ink

By Griffin Fletcher St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jun 14, 2019
0

Subscribe for 99¢

1 of 7

Rick Burgess, 55, of Red Bud, Illinois, gets his St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup Champions tattoo from artist Andy May at Tower Classic Tattooing in The Grove on Thursday, June 13, 2019. Burgess also has a Blue Note on his chest dating to 1982, and made his appointment Thursday morning after the victory. "I've been waiting a long time," said Burgess who missed a grandson's T-ball game to get his ink. "It's time." Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com.

Robert Cohen

For some fans, cheering a champion means screaming and shouting. For others, it means buying a T-shirt. And for a few, it means tattoo time.

Richard Lund, 56, bet his friends in December he’d get a St. Louis Blues tattoo if the hockey team pulled off the unthinkable. Less than 24 hours after the Blues claimed the Stanley Cup in Boston, Lund found himself in Tower Classic Tattooing waiting to get a Bluenote inked on his left shoulder.

“Ever since I got here, I said, ‘If the Blues win the Stanley Cup, I’ll get a Blues tattoo,’” said Lund, who lives in Richmond Heights. “I said, ‘If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it.’”

The London native obviously has grown fond of his adopted hometown.

“In the 32 years I’ve been here, I think it’s one of the best things that’s happened to the city,” Lund said.

The new tattoo — he has one other — will be the Bluenote with a fleur-de-lis inside.

Tower Classic co-owner and artist Andy May said he’s been getting messages from potential clients interested in Blues tattoos since Wednesday night, even receiving a message as early as 7 a.m. Thursday. He said he plans to work on a few of his days off just to meet the demand.

“Ever since I began in this industry, people have been saying they wanted that tattoo,” May said. “The time is now.”

May himself is a longtime Blues fan, going to games as a kid.

“If anyone wants to get a Stanley Cup tattoo, I’m their guy,” May said.

At Trader Bob’s Tattoo Shop, Florida transplant Rachel Williams was awaiting a Bluenote on her forearm. Williams, 32, moved to St. Louis eight years ago and admits she was inspired by the Blues during this year’s Stanley Cup chase.

“I’m caught up in all of the excitement,” Williams said. “I wanted to get something to show my newfound fandom.”

Her tattoo decision? Recent. Very recent. She said she was looking at a Facebook group for Blues fans on Thursday when she figured she would take the plunge.

“What better way to represent the city of St. Louis than getting a Blues note the day after they win the Stanley Cup?” Williams said.

Alice Dunaway, 24, of Kirkwood, moved from St. Louis in 2012 to attend college on the East Coast. Now living in New York, she hasn’t forgotten her roots. For three years she has helped run social media groups for Blues fans there, and she helps plan events that now draw more than 100 fellow fans.

“We grew from seven people around a TV,” Dunaway said.

She said she promised her friend she’d get a tattoo of musical notes from Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” if the Blues won it all. She repeated the vow on Twitter last month to raise the stakes. The tattoo will be a way to always remember the Blues’ worst-to-first championship.

“I wanted something really tied to the emotions and feelings of this season,” Dunaway said. “That’s really never going to happen again — that moment — and I really wanted to commemorate it.”