I know, I know tattoos are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I confess I am a bit of an ink addict! I now have 12 and my latest one is a nod to my beloved Eurovision Song Contest. As the ink was setting I shared a picture of it in one of the fan pages on Facebook and asked if anyone else out there had some Eurovision ink, and it turns out you do!

My ESC related ink work comes in two parts. Firstly a little tribute to my all time favourite winner of Eurovision and the person who has had so much influence on me despite having only met her in person for just seconds!

I’m sure you can guess who it is! It was inspired by my friend Michelle Topham, who is the expert on all things Conchita, she had a tattoo of Conchita’s beard tattooed on her arm last year, “The beard” explains Michelle “because it’s Conchita’s symbol of why acceptance and respect should be given to everyone, no matter who they are or what they look like” read more about her tattoo at Leo Sigh. When we finally met in Vienna last year and I saw it for real, I knew I wanted to get the same one done too, mine is on my wrist and a lot smaller than Michelle’s!

For my second Eurovision tattoo, on my right arm, I wanted a way to celebrate my home country and our Eurovision wins, I wonder what will be the next year that gets added on to it? I love it because so many people have to ask what the numbers mean and then they start trying to remember who won in what year! At some point I may get the union jack flag put in the heart!

Here are some of my favourites of the pictures and stories you shared with me about your Eurovision tattoos.

Luke Borg

As soon as I mentioned I was looking for Eurovision ink work a number of people told me I had to contact Luke in Malta, so by the power of Facebook Luke and I got in contact with each other! Here he is to tell you about his tattoo.

“I always remember myself watching the Eurovision, but it was in 2008 that I consider myself that I became a huge fan, following the contest on a daily basis. In 2015, I decided to make Vienna my first ESC experience! To be honest, the idea of getting a tattoo was always one way or another at the back of my mind but never actually made plans to do it. When I secured my trip to Vienna, that was the motivation I needed to finally get tattooed! I scheduled it for April 2015 so that it healed by the time I left for Austria. The following day, without any plans or efforts from my side, surprisingly it went viral haha. I was on news websites, popular Facebook pages and even a guest on national radio! I guess getting a Eurovision tattoo in Malta is bigger than I expected. Whenever I’m in a public place and I’m wearing short sleeve, I have to admit I do get stared at from many people, but I guess it’s just my way to show the world the love I have for this contest!”

Martin Storey

Emma Kiernan

Emma is 21 and has been a fan of ESC since the age of 10. She is  from Ireland but currently lives in Canada. Emma has two ESS tattoos,

the first one she said she asked a friend to design, she wanted the Eurovision logo, but also wanted it to be a bit different. “After getting my first Eurovision tattoo I was on RTE radio 1, where they surprised me with Dana, Niamh Kavanagh, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. They invited me to the Best of Eurovision show where I got to attend the after party and meet Johnny Logan, Linda Martin and Jedward.”

 

Emma’s second tattoo is of MP, I’ll let Emma explain… “The second one I got last year. As soon as I saw the staging for ‘Heroes’ and the story behind it I fell in love with MP and I just thought he would make a great tattoo. So I said to myself if Måns Zelmerlöw wins Melodifestivalen I’m gonna go for it. So I did!” She adds “I definitely plan on getting more ESC tattoos!”

Emma continues to talk about her love for ESC “Eurovision is one of the most important things in my life. I have bipolar disorder and nothing used to get me through my depressive episodes like binge watching my ESC DVDs and more recently, being a member of several ESC related groups and just chatting about Eurovision and making friends. Eurovision means the world to me!”

Chad is from Northern Ireland and has two Eurovision tattoos. He explained that the reason he has them is because they are songs that mean so much to him in his life ‘Euphoria’ and another Conchita-inspired piece of work ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ are both songs that are important to him and he wanted to immortalise them both and carry them around always. I love Chad’s Phoenix tattoo, I also have a phoenix on my left ankle but it was there before Conchita walked into my life, so I can’t claim it as an ESC one, although it does have a bit of an extra meaning now for me too!