Marty Whelan “strangely flattered” by tattoo resulting from Fantasy Football forfeit

Hugh Carr

Surely this means he has a permanent invite to any Marty party, right?

If you thought you had high stakes in your Fantasy Football league, think again.

One man has been left with a permanent reminder of his defeat to his friend with a massive portrait of Marty Whelan tattooed on his thigh.

Phil O’Kelly shared the whole epic saga in a Twitter thread on Sunday (14 August).

Settle in and put the kettle on, it’s a bit of a long one…

So I lost a bet and had to get a Marty Whelan tattoo… pic.twitter.com/WBdNjGleJT

— Phil O'Kelly (@PhillyOKelly) August 14, 2022

The winner of the bet was allowed to choose any tattoo for the loser, but the loser could choose wear the tattoo would go.

Following an unbelievably close season, with both combatants taking the lead at various points, it eventually went down to the wire, with one weekend left to decide it all.

Following a couple of major Spurs-related blunders in the last couple of gameweeks, O’Kelly lost the bet, and was made to carry out his forfeit.

While O’Kelly thought he could get away with having a tattoo that was only as large as a €2 coin, his tattoo artist quickly informed him it would be a larger operation, with the face alone taking up around six inches.

“If I made the whole image six inches tall, his face is too small to get any lasting detail,” O’Kelly’s tattoo artist of choice told him.

“Basically, you would have a tattoo of a guy with a moustache but you need to tell people it’s Marty Whelan.”

The process took three and a half hours, or 210 minutes in total, to see to completion.

3.5 hours later. The man himself! pic.twitter.com/FcOBFGSKtA

— Phil O'Kelly (@PhillyOKelly) August 14, 2022

“At the start I told him 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,” O’Kelly said.

Whelan was informed of the tattoo on Monday morning, after receiving multiple messages from fans surrounding the thread.

“I’m strangely flattered, such bravery from Phil,” the RTÉ presenter said, later adding that he was “honoured” to be on Phil’s leg forever.