The 2022 World Cup has heightened Lionel Messi’s fever. Tattoo artists have been hard at work inking Messi’s image on the bodies of fans paying tribute to the man who rivals the legend of Argentina’s other soccer god, Diego Maradona, since Argentina’s World Cup victory turned Buenos Aires into a massive street party.
In Argentina, where soccer generates something akin to religious fervor, millions of men and women took to the streets on Tuesday to greet the national team as they returned from Qatar by bus.
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Following a night of revelry, many people flocked to the city’s tattoo parlors to commission designs of Messi, the team’s star player who led Argentina to a third World Cup victory.
“I knew a lot of people wanted tattoos of Messi and the team because they had already booked me before the final,” tattoo artist Sebastian Arguello Paz said, wearing the national goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez’s jersey. “I had no idea there would be a line at the shop the next day.”
Arguello said the phone in his studio had been ringing nonstop the day after Argentina beat France on penalties in a nail-biting final, with questions about tattoos of Messi, the World Cup, and Argentina flags.
“I had decided not to get any more tattoos, but when I saw Messi lift the cup, I knew this guy deserved one,” Ramiro Solis, 44, said.
In Andres de Winter’s studio, Cristian Grillo inked a side. He paid tribute with a tattoo of a number 10 Messi shirt supporting the World Cup trophy and three stars, saying he wanted to do something “different, special: just like him.”
De Winter is currently working on a large-scale design of the entire “Scaloneta,” as Lionel Scaloni’s national team is known.
“‘What are you looking at, dummy?’ said Messi. I knew if we won, I’d get it tattooed “Maria Celia Compagno, 68, stated. She now has the phrase tattooed on her forearm.
The jibe, directed at a Dutch striker following a tumultuous quarterfinal, has since been immortalized on T-shirts, internet memes, and people’s bodies.
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