For Joao Fonseca, getting a tattoo was all about representing what he misses most about his home country of Brazil: his family.
“It’s pretty hard for me to be here without my family so I figured I would find something to represent them,” said Fonseca, who plays for the men’s soccer team at Belmont.
Fonseca has moved from country to country over the past four years and has had little chance to see his family in that time.
The ink he sports on the upper half of his left arm features a lion, a lioness and their cub, with a tree looming in the background to represent the family as a whole.
“I see my dad as the lion because his only job is to provide protection and make sure everything is fine so that I can have a good life. The cub just represents me, my brother and my two sisters as one representation,” said Fonseca. “My mom is the lioness because she is always at home making sure we are mentally and emotionally fine so she was the one who provided emotional support.”
He got the tattoo in March 2012 in Tulsa, Okla.
-Sam Cowan