Soccer Star Shocks World With ‘Tattoo’ of Biggest Fan

Portrait tattoos have become so commonplace that we are used to seeing people get tattoos of their favorite actors, musicians and athletes that no one batted an eye when a fan had renowned tattoo artist Andrea Afferni ink a portrait of Juventus goal keeper Gianluigi Buffon on to his leg. But then Buffon turns the tables on the fan and gets a tattoo of his own—the fan’s face on his arm.

With the help of Mastercard, Afferni and Buffon staged a prank on soccer superfan Gio mere days after he had the keeper’s screaming visage inked into him for eternity. Under the ruse of a tattoo documentary they lure Gio into appearing on the video to talk about his ink. Then there is the big reveal and it’s as if a hugging competition broke out. We don’t want to ruin too much for you, you can see the video below.

Anybody who has ever wondered if they like sports a little bit too much will get misty eyed watching this video as it hits very, very close to home. Seeing how appreciative Buffon is to see his face looking back at him lets fans know that these athletes we shower with adoration really do appreciate the gesture, or at the very least Buffon clearly does. While we do sort of wish that Buffon’s tribute to Gio was just as permanent as his fan’s ink, it is still a tremendous prank that made us smile from ear to ear.