Advertisement

Argentines celebrate love for Maradona in ink

DIEGO MARADONA FAN, CINTIA VERONICA, SAYING: "For a woman in childbirth it is very painful. For me I felt that pain the day that Maradona died. The grief is enormous."

The late Argentinian soccer legend Diego Maradona, who died at the age of 60 last week of a heart attack, left behind an unrivaled legacy.

For some of his die-hard fans, the mark he left was indelible. Literally.

DIEGO MARADONA FAN, CINTIA VERONICA, SAYING: "Having that tattoo now, in this moment, is to feel that he (Maradona) is alive. I feel that he is alive."

Some memorialized the soccer great in ink.

Pizza shop owner Guillermo Rodriguez, whose store is called "Siempre al 10" - referring to Maradona's jersey's number - had his entire back covered in tattoos depicting the soccer great.

"It is something beautiful to live with him, so for us he did not die, he will continue being there for all of us, the love we have is eternal."

The death of Maradona has highlighted the almost cult-like adoration that grew up around the player nicknamed "el dios" (the god), who mesmerized on the pitch and inspired fans off it despite long, public battles with addiction.

Argentina declared several days of national mourning following Maradona’s death, and his body lay in state at the presidential palace.

In a tattoo parlor in Buenos Aires, Maximiliano Fernando showed off tattoos of the player on his arm, including images where Maradona is in mid-stride, and another where he is hoisting the World Cup.

"I'll tell everyone. People know him, but when I have children I'll tell them who he was. He is the true player of the people. He's the greatest there is."

Maradona won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and sparkled for Italian side Napoli, where he became a legend for his skills and representing Naples in Italy's poorer south.

His death is likely to spark something of a battle over his legacy and inheritance.

He has some eight children from Argentina to Cuba and Italy.

Nonetheless, Maradona’s wild behavior in some ways endeared him even more with supporters, giving him an everyman feel of fallibility that has ingrained him into the national psyche -- and, of course, on some bodies as well.