It was one of the more painful pieces. But when your blood runs red and blue, a little pinch is worth it.
Shelby Meehan was in a moment that had not come around for a long time. The 18-year-old electrical apprentice from Osterley, who has been working at Tomago Aluminium since she left school, was born to be a Knights fan.
"My dad's a Bulldogs supporter and tried to convert me," she said as the last shading was finished on the Knights' instantly recognisable helmet now inked into her ankle.
"But I grew up in Newcastle. So, I had to follow the local team."
Dave Ross, her tattoo artist from Hunter Street parlour Electric Pantera, had been overwhelmed.
Fewer than 30 minutes after he posted a handful of vibrant, hand-painted traditional flash designs online - the shop's signature style that papers every wall and the ceiling of the close parlour - his phone was blowing up.
Mr Ross had already tattooed nine diehards by Friday afternoon, on the eve of the Newcastle Knights' journey to Sydney and a do-or-die finals clash with the Panthers.
The artist, who has been practicing for more than a decade - and follows the Hunter's team like he was swaddled in a jersey at birth - had been waiting for this; the return of that old Newcastle feeling that had been lying dormant, though never extinguished.
"I'm just old enough to remember the 1997 grand final," he said, beaming in his team's jersey. "We were taken to the 2001 grand final. I've just been waiting all these years to get to this point.
"Even if we lose by 40 points at the weekend, we've already won."
Since posting the designs, modelled on the back catalogue of Knights memorabilia, a mural at Broadmeadow, and one inspired by Mr Ross' wife - a Newcastle scene with the words 'Defend the Kingdom' - he has been inundated with bookings.
"People say it all the time - that we have the most diehard fans," Mr Ross said. "But the Knights aren't just playing for themselves. They're playing for the town. And it finally feels like that again, which is really nice."
Mr Ross had always wanted to be an artist. He had spent some time studying fine art, but there was an intimacy in tattoos that he was drawn to.
"You spend hours and hours with the one person," he said. "And over the years, they get more tattoos. You become friends."
He was working in a furniture shop before he found his break - back before the modern resurgence of the art form when spots in parlours were rare and hard to win. An old tattooer had come in looking for pieces to fit out a shop he was opening, and the pair got talking.
That was 16 years ago, Mr Ross said. He never looked back.
For Ms Meehan, the renaissance of Newcastle's famed devotion to their team felt like a moment - something ineffably more permanent than the final score. It was, all at once, entirely about - and about so much more - than the game.
"I hadn't really thought about it like that," she said from the table, surrounded by the frantic buzz of machines. "But now that I am, it's not bad to be a part of it."
The first-year apprentice said she had always been a 'hands-on' kind of kid growing up. It was what drew her to her trade.
"It's a completely different environment to what most people are used to," she said of working at the Hunter's industrial heart.
There was the sense that, with the ink still settling in her skin, there was more to that off-handed comment than a passing mention of work.
For the uninitiated and the fairweathers, the dedication might seem like unfamiliar language. But this was Newcastle. And, as the artist said, they had been waiting for a long time.
"Nine so far," he said. "And there's more coming."
The weekend's game was a milestone, but - win or lose - Mr Ross is fully booked next week. And they're all coming for the Knights designs.
