Yahoo News Newcastle United's Lewis Miley celebrates 18th birthday with Toon tattoo
Newcastle United's Lewis Miley celebrated his 18th birthday today with a touching tribute to his time with the club.
The Magpie's midfielder chose the special occasion to get his first tattoo which commemorated his incredible footballing career. The fresh ink on his forearm features Lewis in his Newcastle strip with the red 67 number printed on the back.
It depicts him has a child playing football on a small pitch and progresses into a packed-out St James' Park stadium. Meanwhile, the words "Never give up on your dreams" are etched into the centre of the design.
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Tattoo studio owner, Abbie Graham, who came into work on her day off for Lewis' appointment, said: "It's a journey of his life starting from him playing football as a kid to wanting to play for Newcastle United to eventually playing for the club. It's quite a meaningful tattoo.
"He messaged me two weeks ago on Instagram and said 'is there any chance I can get booked in for a tattoo the sooner the better? I'm 18 on May 1'. I said yeah sure and asked him what he was after and he sent this design across which is pretty much what he's got now but we've made it more him and a little bit better."
Lewis is not the first Newcastle United player to get inked at 4th Avenue tattoo studio, with Dan Burn and Jamaal Lascelles also getting inked at the North Shields studio. But Abbie explained that Lewis booked in after following the studio on Instagram.
The 34-year-old said: "I asked him 'why me?' and he said he found me on Instagram. I thought that Jamaal Lascelles and Dan Burn had sent him but he said no, he'd just seen me on Instagram.
"It's a massive thing for me, the staff in the studio and the studio itself. For us to be getting contacted directly without us reaching out, it means everything."
"It's Lewis Miley, he could have had anybody but he chose me, your normal girl from Shields", she added.
Abbie said that Lewis came with a signed shirt to gift to the studio, which Abbie plans to frame and put on display at 4th Avenue, which she opened in 2017 after teaching herself to become a tattoo artist using videos on YouTube. She had spent seven years working in dentistry before opening her own tattoo studio.
And she expects to welcome Lewis back to the studio as he plans to incorporate the tattoo into a full sleeve refelcting on his life.
Abbie said: "I said if he ever moved club he could get that on there but he said he'd never leave Newcastle United unless it was for Real Madrid. But he's got a lot of years ahead of him, the kid could go anywhere."
The mum-of-one added: "Lewis is your typical 18-year-old lad. The first thing he said when he came into the studio was 'hiya, you alright?' I told him to take a seat while we were getting sorted and he said 'so you've just come back from Tenerife with your daughter?'
"He obviously watches my social media and was just making normal conversation - it was lush.
"We just chatted about all sorts - what he does outside of work, his brothers and how two of them were now playing for Newcastle and one for Sunderland - just normal, general conversation.
"It was like he was one of us. He is one of us. He said people will come up to him but he's just a human like everybody else. He said sometimes he forgets, he'll be driving along and people will beep and wave at him and he'll wonder what's going on."
Following his tattoo appointment Lewis was off to a photoshoot, however, he plans to celebrate his 18th birthday with family tomorrow.
