Stanley Cup ink: Never-before-seen photos of TJ Oshie’s Mario Kart tattoo

March 6, 2019 3:11 pm

Everyone remembers the joyous days that followed the Capitals’ first Stanley Cup. The team attended a Nationals game where Alex Ovechkin threw out two ceremonial first pitches. The team then took the championship trophy to the Georgetown Waterfront where they invented the Cup stand and swam in the fountains.

One small, but overshadowed part of the night was when several members of the team, who appeared to be inebriated, got tattoos.

In an article in the Players’ Tribune, Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby shared more details about that night and recalled what TJ Oshie said to him at the waterfront.

“We’re doing it, dude. I’m getting a Wario tattoo,” Oshie said according to Holtby’s article. “I’M GETTING A WARIO TATTOO! HOLTS! CALL THE TATTOO GUYS!”

Oshie was one of six Caps players the ended up getting a tattoo at Tattoo Paradise DC that night.

The American Hero decided to have Wario tattooed on his body because the team played Mario Kart together on the road. It became one of the signature parts of the team’s championship season, representing the players’ camaraderie. According to Holtby, former Capitals defenseman and close friend, Nate Schmidt, bought a used Nintendo 64 from an old-school game store in Toronto several seasons before.

“[I]magine a hotel room full of grown men all huddled around a TV,” Holtby said. “It’s a couple of hours before the biggest hockey game of our lives, and everybody’s screaming out, ‘WHEL-COME TOO MAAAAAAR-EEO KART!!!!!!'”

Holtby said that one day during the Final, Oshie told the team he was going to get a tattoo of Wario if the team won the Stanley Cup.

“If we win, I’m doing it. I swear. I’m getting him inked on me,” Oshie said. “If we win the Cup … I’m getting a Wario tattoo.”

Oshie’s odd tattoo didn’t become public knowledge until November when the Capitals forward conducted an interview with Uproxx.

“In the playoffs you get a team suite when you’re on the road because you’re playing in the same city a couple times in a row, which you don’t do during the regular season,” Oshie said. “So they kind of make a suite for us, and I got kind of addicted, I guess, to playing Mario Kart with some of the fellas.

“It was kind of our routine in between games on the road to get a couple games in,” Oshie continued. “Well, I guess more than a couple for some of us. But it was just kind of a bonding thing that we had, but yeah, it was fun and now I got Wario tattooed on my leg.”

Lauren Oshie joked about her husband’s tattoo placement on an RMNB Instagram post while reacting to Devante Smith-Pelly’s offer to pay for a fan’s inception tattoo of Brett Connolly getting a tattoo.

Ellen Arantes (Follow here on Instagram and Twitter), who is the social media manager and content creator for Tattoo Paradise DC, shared the first public photos of Oshie’s Wario tattoo exclusively to RMNB. The tattoo is located high on the hockey player’s right thigh, which explains his wife’s ire.

Photos: Ellen Arantes/@lnrnts

Oshie’s tattoo was inked by Billy, one of the best tattoo artists in the area.

Capitals forward Brett Connolly, who was eating pizza while getting inked, also had a Mario Kart character etched into his body forever. Connolly got a Bowser tattoo as part of his sleeve on his left arm. It was also done by Billy.

Photos: Ellen Arantes/@lnrnts

Braden Holtby had a simple Stanley Cup tattooed on the outside of his right forearm. Inside the Cup is the DC flag.

Photos: Ellen Arantes/@lnrnts

Holtby told the Players’ Tribune that a good chunk of the tattoo experience was “blurry”

“The moment that I will never forget is Jakub Vrana lying there on the table, in so much pain. Just dying,” Holtby said. “And he’s like, ‘Guys, somebody just hold my hand.’

“And so we took turns holding his hand, like, ‘It’s gonna be okay, buddy. It’s gonna be over soon.'”

Vrana was videoed shouting, “hit me with the f*cking puck because it hurts so bad.”