The Patriots Have Gone to His Head

Victor Thompson gives the thumbs-up to the left side of his 'helmet.' If the Patriots win the Super Bowl he plans to have the Lombardi Trophy tattooed on the top of his head. (Shannon Mullen, NHPR)

From the eyebrows down, Victor Thompson’s an average guy, but we’ll come back to that.

He hangs at the House of Tattoos, up the street from an old mill building, and a funeral home.

(tattoo needle buzzing)

He doesn’t work all winter, in the summer he installs people’s docks on the lake nearby, and he admits he’s never had much of a goal in life.

"I don’t know, I just went with the flow, whatever happened happened."

It was during a particularly low point recently that Victor decided to dedicate himself.

He was serving three months in prison for assault, but his favorite football team, the New England Patriots, was having a record season.

"You know I was in there sittin’ there incarcerated the third game of the season I was watching, and everybody has hats and t-shirts, that sorta thing, and I says, you know what I want, I want Brady’s helmet tattooed on my head."

…as in Patriots quarterback Tom Brady – over the past month Victor’s had all the symbols from Brady’s helmet tattooed on his shaved head – he has the team’s minuteman logo wrapping around both temples.

And across the base of his skull – an American flag, Brady’s number 12 in the middle, and the NFL logo.

He’s trying to convince his wife Barbara to let him do more.

"If I had my way I’d put the whole silver helmet and the face mask. But she told me if I do the face mask I get a divorce."

Victor Thompson (left) and his tattoo artist, Gary Laroche, in the parlor at House of Tattoos in Laconia. Laroche admits he, too, has a tattoo on his head, underneath his hair - where it will stay if he can help it. (Shannon Mullen, NHPR)

"He can cover the head up, the face you can’t cover that up…"

Victor: "I’ll be ready for Halloween, I won’t need a mask!"

Even with his helmet-head, Victor will probably never pass for Tom Brady – who’s a star athlete, and Victor’s, well… Victor.

But he says that doesn’t matter - after hours under the needle, and a thousand bucks in the hole, he feels like a true Patriot.

"I have their team emblem on me now, and now they can’t forget me. Now any time they think about number 12, they’re going to think about 12 in NH, that guy’s wearing it on his head. Well that’s me, Vic Thompson, that’s what I wanted to do, and I did it."

If the Pats win the Super Bowl, Victor wants to get a tattoo of the trophy on top of his head.

And he’s hoping Tom Brady will come to Laconia, take up the tattoo needle himself, and complete Victor’s helmet with an autograph.

For NHPR News, I’m Shannon Mullen.