Northampton Saints fan with £300 tattoo will get a new one after crest change

A rugby fan who got a "painful" £300 tattoo of his team's badge will do it all over again after the club said it was introducing a new design.

Simon Stacey from Desborough, Northamptonshire, had the tattoo done on his calf when Northampton Saints won the Premiership in 2014.

The club announced it is designing a new crest because the existing one does not reflect the history of the club.

Mr Stacey said he would find room on his leg to add the new insignia.

When his team won a dramatic Premiership final against Saracens with a final score of 24-20, Simon Stacey decided to celebrate it with a permanent design on his body.

He decided to put his very first tattoo on his calf, which he said was "quite a painful place", and it took about four hours and cost him about £300.

The image of the Saints crest is about eight inches (20cm) high and about six inches (15cm) wide.

Ten years later, the club decided that the crest must go as it "is too intricate to work digitally, lacks the club colours and some supporters could not recall the design when asked", according to the chief executive, Mark Darbon.

Mr Stacey said: "I wouldn't change it [the existing tattoo], but I would have another one because it means a lot.

"Looking at it, there's not a lot that's related to Saints so I understand why the fans don't see what it's got to do [with the club] so I'm up for change and hopefully it's a good logo that everyone can relate to."

On his other leg, Mr Stacey has a bigger tattoo which is "a work in progress, a Foo Fighters dedication to Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl" - a project that has taken 30 hours of work so far.

He has many other tattoos, including the Saints "stick man" logo, but he said there would be space left beside the existing crest for an image of the new one.

The club said it hoped to reveal more about the new design in the summer.

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