GP Stories - It's Coming Home

Before the Euro 2020 final, the whole country was excited, people had forgotten about Covid for the time-being (in a good way), there was talk about a bank holiday being held in August if England won; Boris Johnson had advised employers to allow their employees to rock up to work the next day a little late. I had been asking all my patient's whether "it's coming home" as a light ending to my consultations. I think people appreciated it. People were in a good mood.   

However we all know how the story ends. 3 penalty misses later and England came crashing back to reality. No extra bank holiday and still in Covid lockdown, people were in sour moods again. The next day, I was doing a duty session at my practice, urgent call comes on the list. Mental health issues. Call up this young woman in her 20's in tears. Turns out she got a tattoo on her forearm with the words "It's coming home, Euro 2020" and the England flag the day before the final. She was now so anxious and tearful that she said she was scared of leaving the house and was asking if we could remove her tattoo on the NHS. 

Now this isn't necessarily an isolated incident. This is relatively more common than I thought it would be (i.e. never). Numerous online articles such as this lady who isn't even a football fan, who got it done prior the game or this man who did it himself with a tattoo gun he got for Xmas or this gentleman who even put 'England Winners' on his body before the outcome was even known. Unfortunately I can't find out what happened to these people after. but hopefully they don't regret it as much as my lady. I calmly informed her that we don't do laser treatment for tattoos but we can offer counselling for her to get over this poorly thought out decision. I personally like to think she would have kept the tattoo so that it serves as a reminder about thinking out future decisions. She wasn't best pleased the NHS didn't fund her tattoo removal and hung up in anger.