Sprong was thrilled with his first tattoo, but he knew he wanted to finish the piece to wrap art around his upper arm. He had some ideas of what he wanted to put there, and shared them with a couple fellow hockey players at a prospect tournament.
"I was with Jake Walman (then with St. Louis, now with Detroit) and Tage Thompson (then with St. Louis, now with Buffalo) and we were just talking about tattoo ideas and designs and (Thompson) actually drew a sketch for me of an idea," Sprong said. "He's actually a really good artist. I told him what I was thinking about getting and he drew that sketch. Two years later, I used (bits from) that sketch."
One hockey player had inspired the actual art, another helped find the artist. While with the Anaheim organization, Sprong got a recommendation from Ryan Kesler as to where to go to fill out the side and back of his arm. It took two days with two sessions of seven hours using Thompson's art to craft the top half of the body ink, and collaboration with the artist to complete the balance. A result Sprong is thrilled with.
"The outside is a bit of a forest and some water and trees with two wolves," Sprong said. "One wolf (represents) my dad, one (represents) me and the two birds are my grandparents back in Amsterdam."
