Tat’s amore.
Think marriage is a commitment? A UK barber recently proposed to his girlfriend with a giant “marry me” thigh tattoo — which required him to pop the question with his pants down.
“I had my trousers ’round my ankles when I proposed to her,” Joe Murray, 33, told Kennedy News & Media of the potentially permanent proposal, which went down last month.
The Derbyshire native had wanted to ask his girlfriend of three years, Sara Graham, 36, for her hand in a more “memorable” fashion than your typical proposal.
As the pair shared a love of tattoos, the father of three thought it’d be fitting to pose the query in body art form. Murray said the stunt was inspired by videos he’d seen online.
He made his ballsy scheme a reality with the help of Ant Payne-Wright, the owner of Liberty Ink Tattoo in Inkersall, Derbyshire.
They settled on a 10-inch tattoo, which depicts cartoon doppelgängers of the couple on Murray’s upper-left thigh and the words “Marry me then…” with “yes or no” boxes underneath.
“It’s not a tattoo I do every day,” said Payne-Wright, who’s been in the business for eight years.
To execute the plan, Murray lured his bride-to-be to the tattoo parlor under the guise of having a consultation about an upcoming ink job.
When Graham arrived, Murray pulled down his pants to expose the tat as “Love You ‘Till the End” by The Pogues played in the background.
“Me and Sara are very sarcastic with each other, so for me to try and be serious, I froze,” the Brit explained about the nerve-racking moment. “I thought I handled it quite well until I got down on my knee and my hand started shaking.”
Despite him doing the “legwork,” Murray’s other half initially didn’t realize what was going on, eventually forcing him to ask her out loud.
Fortunately, she said “yes.” Then, with Payne-Wright’s permission, Graham checked the “yes” box on her future husband’s leg with a tattoo gun.
“The proposal was a shock to say the least,” recalled Graham. “The fact I got to tattoo it myself made it that little bit extra special too.”
She added, “It was just a lovely moment and I’ll cherish it forever, well, he will now — it’s on his body.”
Payne-Wright, for one, has no regrets about letting the haircutter commit his proposal to body ink.
“It’s symbolic for them both that she tattooed him ‘yes,’” he said. “I never rule anything out in tattooing. There’s so much weird and wonderful stuff that goes on, it’s crazy. Any tattoo’s possible.”
In a similar stunt in 2018, MMA fighter Vince Murdock proposed to his girlfriend, Kira Feightner, with the help of a marriage query that he had inked on his knee.
It’s unclear how either man would’ve reacted had their girlfriends ticked “no.”
