RTE star Marty Whelan has said he is "strangely flattered" after a man got a tattoo of him after losing a bet.
Phil O'Kelly and his friend Coleman Hudson made a bet on who would get the most amount of points in their fantasy football league during the 21/22 season. The loser would have to get a tattoo at least the size of a €2 coin, with the winner choosing the design.
After a fierce debate, the friends decided that Coleman would get a lion and Phil would get Marty Whelan's face. The fantasy football league was "unbelievably tight" and went down to the wire.
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Phil cut down a 38 point lead in February to take the lead in late March, but Coleman fought back and was just one point down with two games left. Then disaster struck for Phil as he picked Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heunhg-min as his captain - this player gets double points - just before he had an awful game. Suddenly Phil was down 32 points with one game left and effectively lost the bet.
Phil said he originally wanted to get Marty's picture on his behind but the tattoo artist in Temple Bar's Live Fast Tattoos warned him against it. The tattoo artist also urged him to make it much bigger than a €2 coin as a portrait would not work that small.
After three and a half hours, the tattoo was complete and Phil was delighted with the result. He wrote on Twitter: "At the start I told him [the tattoo artist] the most important thing was to capture his smile (I definitely didn't want a grumpy Marty on my leg forever more), and Kit absolutely nailed it. The pic will only get better as it settles down to."
Phil's story went viral on Twitter and it wasn't long before Marty Whelan took notice, saying: "I'm strangely flattered, such bravery from Phil." He later added that he was "honoured" to be on Phil's leg forever.
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