For most footballers, if you’re after their complete CV, you’d most likely head to their Wikipedia page. For Georgia Stanway, you can just roll back a sleeve and look at her skin.
From a set of Olympic rings representing her time in the competition, to a recent II in Roman numerals celebrating her two EURO wins, the 27-year-old has commemorated her extensive roll-call of career highlights with plenty of permanently inked reminders. Yet Stanway’s impressive résumé – which includes three FA Cups, three Bundesliga titles and one DFB-Pokal win, alongside those EURO trophies – makes up just a part of her patchwork of over 100 delicate, fine-line tattoos.
Not content with her success on the pitch or her own extensive ink collection, Stanway has been quietly studying the craft of tattooing in her spare time, picking up the gun herself in recent years to tattoo friends and family. During her four years at Bayern, she’s become fully embedded in the Munich tattoo scene, and when she leaves the club at the end of this season, she’ll be on the lookout for new studios, and willing customers, wherever she finds herself playing next.
Here, she tells us how she got started on her budding new career and the escape it provides from the day-to-day demands of football.
What was the first tattoo you ever got? Was it completely incidental or something you’d planned in advance?
Tattoos have always been a part of my family: my dad’s got a lot, my brothers have got a lot, and it was just normal for us. We knew a guy called Tattoo Stu and he’d come round to the house. I was always interested in watching how he was doing it and, as I got older, I knew that I wanted tattoos. My first one was the coordinates of where I lived, because I’d moved home. At first, it started off sentimental, and then you run out of things that are sentimental and it just became a little bit random.
Are there any others that have particular meaning to you?
Yeah, there are a few that have got hidden meanings. Like, a family member has drawn something that’s maybe a little bit imperfect, but that’s what I like about it. Then you’ve got the things that are sentimental, like the time that the final whistle went when we won the EUROs; “home” because football came home; “31” because that’s my Bayern number; “+44”, the dial code for home. So, there are a few random things with hidden meanings and then a few that are just a little bit deeper.
What is your most recent tattoo?
My most recent is on my leg. I’m trying to complete my leg at the moment, so it’s just super random. I think it was some flowers or a butterfly or something like that.
Have you always been an artistic, creative person or were tattoos your first foray into that sphere?
I’ve always liked to be a bit different. I’ve always liked to dress a little bit differently and just do something that maybe people would think is a little bit weird. I kind of liked weird. And, as I got older, I was able to delve into new things that allowed me to be creative. It started with taking photos and having an eye for seeing what could look cool. With tattooing, every time you’re sitting with an artist and they’re coming up with new ideas and they’re being super creative, it’s infectious. And that’s how it started, really, just spending a lot of time with the artist that tattooed me, and then it became another thing that I wanted to learn.
What’s the Munich tattoo scene like? How did you get involved with that?
There’s a studio here called Pardon Paris, and then there’s two guys there – one called Viktor and one called Linus – and they’ve become a massive part of me. I found them on social media and then booked in for a tattoo, and then one thing led to another and we started spending a lot of time together, going out for dinners. Viktor was actually a footballer at Bayern before he began his tattooing business, so we had a lot of connections without even realising. I think it was really important that I made friends outside of football, and they were my way to be able to do so. Obviously, I moved to Munich and everything was brand new, and to make friends outside of football is difficult. I think it’s special when you can make connections with people straight away who become long-time friends. I also think it’s nice that you’ve got a good relationship with someone who gives you a tattoo, because it is a meaningful thing. It’s a deep thing. It’s something that you do have on your body for the rest of your life and, with those two guys, it’s so nice to experience both the tattooing element and then also experiencing different things – going to the men’s games and going into the city and exploring, and just deepening the friendship.
Having tattooing to focus on outside of football must help ground you.
Tattooing is a balance outside of football. It takes your mind away from things, it takes the pressure off, and when you’re tattooing, it’s just about the 1 per cent, which is exactly the same in football. It keeps things separate. It’s super important to have people both in work and outside of work where you can escape and you don’t have to talk about football.
And then how did you take that step to start tattooing yourself?
So, [my friend] Viktor is one of the owners of Pardon Paris, but he couldn’t tattoo either! So we had a little bet that the first person to be able to tattoo gets to tattoo the other person. In the end, he gave up and I carried on. That’s how it started, just with a random conversation and a bit of a bet on who could do it first. I’ve loved it ever since.
Who was the first person you ever got to tattoo?
Linus at Pardon Paris was actually the first person I ever tattooed. The BBC came over and they did a documentary [on me having said] one day I would love to be able to tattoo people. This was just me saying it in a passing comment, and then six months down the line they turned up and actually wanted me to tattoo somebody on that day! Of course, I was giving it big energy and I said yes. Then I got in the studio and realised there were six cameras and ten people in the room, and that’s when I got a little bit scared. I didn’t realise what I’d signed up to until that point. When I got in that room, I think I went through about five pairs of gloves; I couldn’t put them on without ripping them because my hands were sweating too much. But it was a really nice feeling afterwards because it was a massive rush of adrenaline. And then to see that the person is satisfied on the other side is the biggest reward.
What’s your favourite tattoo that you’ve given someone else?
There’s a few. I like it when somebody comes to me with a design that they’ve made themselves, so it’s got that unique element. It’s nice to be able to create original designs or something that’s really specific to somebody. If I look at Maisie Adam [a UK comedian Stanway recently tattooed], for example, she wanted something that represented football, and then we got a little bit deeper and it was about the EUROs, and then we got deeper and she’d just bought her first house, so the house I did linked to the fact that football came home. It’s things that you can link all together without even realising.
Have you tattooed any of your team-mates at Bayern or in the England national team?
Yeah, both, actually. There’s a few of my team-mates here that I’ve done, and then also in England, [during] the EUROs, it happened.
Did you take your equipment to the EURO with you?
No comment!
Do people come to you with their designs or do you work with them on something custom?
A bit of both. There are still things that I can’t do at the moment. I’ve not gone into shading; I’ve only gone into lines and block colour. At the moment, I’m only tattooing friends and family. I’ve not got to the point to open it up yet. I’m a little bit apprehensive to do that because it’s a very nerve-racking thing and you want to be able to make sure that every design is as perfect as it can get before you can venture out into the world.
For most footballers, if you’re after their complete CV, you’d most likely head to their Wikipedia page. For Georgia Stanway, you can just roll back a sleeve and look at her skin.
From a set of Olympic rings representing her time in the competition, to a recent II in Roman numerals celebrating her two EURO wins, the 27-year-old has commemorated her extensive roll-call of career highlights with plenty of permanently inked reminders. Yet Stanway’s impressive résumé – which includes three FA Cups, three Bundesliga titles and one DFB-Pokal win, alongside those EURO trophies – makes up just a part of her patchwork of over 100 delicate, fine-line tattoos.
Not content with her success on the pitch or her own extensive ink collection, Stanway has been quietly studying the craft of tattooing in her spare time, picking up the gun herself in recent years to tattoo friends and family. During her four years at Bayern, she’s become fully embedded in the Munich tattoo scene, and when she leaves the club at the end of this season, she’ll be on the lookout for new studios, and willing customers, wherever she finds herself playing next.
Here, she tells us how she got started on her budding new career and the escape it provides from the day-to-day demands of football.
What was the first tattoo you ever got? Was it completely incidental or something you’d planned in advance?
Tattoos have always been a part of my family: my dad’s got a lot, my brothers have got a lot, and it was just normal for us. We knew a guy called Tattoo Stu and he’d come round to the house. I was always interested in watching how he was doing it and, as I got older, I knew that I wanted tattoos. My first one was the coordinates of where I lived, because I’d moved home. At first, it started off sentimental, and then you run out of things that are sentimental and it just became a little bit random.
Are there any others that have particular meaning to you?
Yeah, there are a few that have got hidden meanings. Like, a family member has drawn something that’s maybe a little bit imperfect, but that’s what I like about it. Then you’ve got the things that are sentimental, like the time that the final whistle went when we won the EUROs; “home” because football came home; “31” because that’s my Bayern number; “+44”, the dial code for home. So, there are a few random things with hidden meanings and then a few that are just a little bit deeper.
What is your most recent tattoo?
My most recent is on my leg. I’m trying to complete my leg at the moment, so it’s just super random. I think it was some flowers or a butterfly or something like that.
Have you always been an artistic, creative person or were tattoos your first foray into that sphere?
I’ve always liked to be a bit different. I’ve always liked to dress a little bit differently and just do something that maybe people would think is a little bit weird. I kind of liked weird. And, as I got older, I was able to delve into new things that allowed me to be creative. It started with taking photos and having an eye for seeing what could look cool. With tattooing, every time you’re sitting with an artist and they’re coming up with new ideas and they’re being super creative, it’s infectious. And that’s how it started, really, just spending a lot of time with the artist that tattooed me, and then it became another thing that I wanted to learn.
What’s the Munich tattoo scene like? How did you get involved with that?
There’s a studio here called Pardon Paris, and then there’s two guys there – one called Viktor and one called Linus – and they’ve become a massive part of me. I found them on social media and then booked in for a tattoo, and then one thing led to another and we started spending a lot of time together, going out for dinners. Viktor was actually a footballer at Bayern before he began his tattooing business, so we had a lot of connections without even realising. I think it was really important that I made friends outside of football, and they were my way to be able to do so. Obviously, I moved to Munich and everything was brand new, and to make friends outside of football is difficult. I think it’s special when you can make connections with people straight away who become long-time friends. I also think it’s nice that you’ve got a good relationship with someone who gives you a tattoo, because it is a meaningful thing. It’s a deep thing. It’s something that you do have on your body for the rest of your life and, with those two guys, it’s so nice to experience both the tattooing element and then also experiencing different things – going to the men’s games and going into the city and exploring, and just deepening the friendship.
Having tattooing to focus on outside of football must help ground you.
Tattooing is a balance outside of football. It takes your mind away from things, it takes the pressure off, and when you’re tattooing, it’s just about the 1 per cent, which is exactly the same in football. It keeps things separate. It’s super important to have people both in work and outside of work where you can escape and you don’t have to talk about football.
And then how did you take that step to start tattooing yourself?
So, [my friend] Viktor is one of the owners of Pardon Paris, but he couldn’t tattoo either! So we had a little bet that the first person to be able to tattoo gets to tattoo the other person. In the end, he gave up and I carried on. That’s how it started, just with a random conversation and a bit of a bet on who could do it first. I’ve loved it ever since.
Who was the first person you ever got to tattoo?
Linus at Pardon Paris was actually the first person I ever tattooed. The BBC came over and they did a documentary [on me having said] one day I would love to be able to tattoo people. This was just me saying it in a passing comment, and then six months down the line they turned up and actually wanted me to tattoo somebody on that day! Of course, I was giving it big energy and I said yes. Then I got in the studio and realised there were six cameras and ten people in the room, and that’s when I got a little bit scared. I didn’t realise what I’d signed up to until that point. When I got in that room, I think I went through about five pairs of gloves; I couldn’t put them on without ripping them because my hands were sweating too much. But it was a really nice feeling afterwards because it was a massive rush of adrenaline. And then to see that the person is satisfied on the other side is the biggest reward.
What’s your favourite tattoo that you’ve given someone else?
There’s a few. I like it when somebody comes to me with a design that they’ve made themselves, so it’s got that unique element. It’s nice to be able to create original designs or something that’s really specific to somebody. If I look at Maisie Adam [a UK comedian Stanway recently tattooed], for example, she wanted something that represented football, and then we got a little bit deeper and it was about the EUROs, and then we got deeper and she’d just bought her first house, so the house I did linked to the fact that football came home. It’s things that you can link all together without even realising.
Have you tattooed any of your team-mates at Bayern or in the England national team?
Yeah, both, actually. There’s a few of my team-mates here that I’ve done, and then also in England, [during] the EUROs, it happened.
Did you take your equipment to the EURO with you?
No comment!
Do people come to you with their designs or do you work with them on something custom?
A bit of both. There are still things that I can’t do at the moment. I’ve not gone into shading; I’ve only gone into lines and block colour. At the moment, I’m only tattooing friends and family. I’ve not got to the point to open it up yet. I’m a little bit apprehensive to do that because it’s a very nerve-racking thing and you want to be able to make sure that every design is as perfect as it can get before you can venture out into the world.
For most footballers, if you’re after their complete CV, you’d most likely head to their Wikipedia page. For Georgia Stanway, you can just roll back a sleeve and look at her skin.
From a set of Olympic rings representing her time in the competition, to a recent II in Roman numerals celebrating her two EURO wins, the 27-year-old has commemorated her extensive roll-call of career highlights with plenty of permanently inked reminders. Yet Stanway’s impressive résumé – which includes three FA Cups, three Bundesliga titles and one DFB-Pokal win, alongside those EURO trophies – makes up just a part of her patchwork of over 100 delicate, fine-line tattoos.
Not content with her success on the pitch or her own extensive ink collection, Stanway has been quietly studying the craft of tattooing in her spare time, picking up the gun herself in recent years to tattoo friends and family. During her four years at Bayern, she’s become fully embedded in the Munich tattoo scene, and when she leaves the club at the end of this season, she’ll be on the lookout for new studios, and willing customers, wherever she finds herself playing next.
Here, she tells us how she got started on her budding new career and the escape it provides from the day-to-day demands of football.
What was the first tattoo you ever got? Was it completely incidental or something you’d planned in advance?
Tattoos have always been a part of my family: my dad’s got a lot, my brothers have got a lot, and it was just normal for us. We knew a guy called Tattoo Stu and he’d come round to the house. I was always interested in watching how he was doing it and, as I got older, I knew that I wanted tattoos. My first one was the coordinates of where I lived, because I’d moved home. At first, it started off sentimental, and then you run out of things that are sentimental and it just became a little bit random.
Are there any others that have particular meaning to you?
Yeah, there are a few that have got hidden meanings. Like, a family member has drawn something that’s maybe a little bit imperfect, but that’s what I like about it. Then you’ve got the things that are sentimental, like the time that the final whistle went when we won the EUROs; “home” because football came home; “31” because that’s my Bayern number; “+44”, the dial code for home. So, there are a few random things with hidden meanings and then a few that are just a little bit deeper.
What is your most recent tattoo?
My most recent is on my leg. I’m trying to complete my leg at the moment, so it’s just super random. I think it was some flowers or a butterfly or something like that.
Have you always been an artistic, creative person or were tattoos your first foray into that sphere?
I’ve always liked to be a bit different. I’ve always liked to dress a little bit differently and just do something that maybe people would think is a little bit weird. I kind of liked weird. And, as I got older, I was able to delve into new things that allowed me to be creative. It started with taking photos and having an eye for seeing what could look cool. With tattooing, every time you’re sitting with an artist and they’re coming up with new ideas and they’re being super creative, it’s infectious. And that’s how it started, really, just spending a lot of time with the artist that tattooed me, and then it became another thing that I wanted to learn.
What’s the Munich tattoo scene like? How did you get involved with that?
There’s a studio here called Pardon Paris, and then there’s two guys there – one called Viktor and one called Linus – and they’ve become a massive part of me. I found them on social media and then booked in for a tattoo, and then one thing led to another and we started spending a lot of time together, going out for dinners. Viktor was actually a footballer at Bayern before he began his tattooing business, so we had a lot of connections without even realising. I think it was really important that I made friends outside of football, and they were my way to be able to do so. Obviously, I moved to Munich and everything was brand new, and to make friends outside of football is difficult. I think it’s special when you can make connections with people straight away who become long-time friends. I also think it’s nice that you’ve got a good relationship with someone who gives you a tattoo, because it is a meaningful thing. It’s a deep thing. It’s something that you do have on your body for the rest of your life and, with those two guys, it’s so nice to experience both the tattooing element and then also experiencing different things – going to the men’s games and going into the city and exploring, and just deepening the friendship.
Having tattooing to focus on outside of football must help ground you.
Tattooing is a balance outside of football. It takes your mind away from things, it takes the pressure off, and when you’re tattooing, it’s just about the 1 per cent, which is exactly the same in football. It keeps things separate. It’s super important to have people both in work and outside of work where you can escape and you don’t have to talk about football.
And then how did you take that step to start tattooing yourself?
So, [my friend] Viktor is one of the owners of Pardon Paris, but he couldn’t tattoo either! So we had a little bet that the first person to be able to tattoo gets to tattoo the other person. In the end, he gave up and I carried on. That’s how it started, just with a random conversation and a bit of a bet on who could do it first. I’ve loved it ever since.
Who was the first person you ever got to tattoo?
Linus at Pardon Paris was actually the first person I ever tattooed. The BBC came over and they did a documentary [on me having said] one day I would love to be able to tattoo people. This was just me saying it in a passing comment, and then six months down the line they turned up and actually wanted me to tattoo somebody on that day! Of course, I was giving it big energy and I said yes. Then I got in the studio and realised there were six cameras and ten people in the room, and that’s when I got a little bit scared. I didn’t realise what I’d signed up to until that point. When I got in that room, I think I went through about five pairs of gloves; I couldn’t put them on without ripping them because my hands were sweating too much. But it was a really nice feeling afterwards because it was a massive rush of adrenaline. And then to see that the person is satisfied on the other side is the biggest reward.
What’s your favourite tattoo that you’ve given someone else?
There’s a few. I like it when somebody comes to me with a design that they’ve made themselves, so it’s got that unique element. It’s nice to be able to create original designs or something that’s really specific to somebody. If I look at Maisie Adam [a UK comedian Stanway recently tattooed], for example, she wanted something that represented football, and then we got a little bit deeper and it was about the EUROs, and then we got deeper and she’d just bought her first house, so the house I did linked to the fact that football came home. It’s things that you can link all together without even realising.
Have you tattooed any of your team-mates at Bayern or in the England national team?
Yeah, both, actually. There’s a few of my team-mates here that I’ve done, and then also in England, [during] the EUROs, it happened.
Did you take your equipment to the EURO with you?
No comment!
Do people come to you with their designs or do you work with them on something custom?
A bit of both. There are still things that I can’t do at the moment. I’ve not gone into shading; I’ve only gone into lines and block colour. At the moment, I’m only tattooing friends and family. I’ve not got to the point to open it up yet. I’m a little bit apprehensive to do that because it’s a very nerve-racking thing and you want to be able to make sure that every design is as perfect as it can get before you can venture out into the world.
