Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin Reveals Special Tattoo One Year After Cardiac Arrest Incident
Damar Hamlin's new tattoo is a special one.
Damar Hamlin just got a very personal tattoo. The Buffalo Bills safety commemorated the first anniversary of his on-field cardiac arrest by getting a heart hands tattoo on the back of his neck. The tattoo debuted on celebrity tattoo artist Alexander Brenes' Instagram page and shows hands making a shape with a heart with an electrocardiogram in the center.
"1 year later still locked inn," Brenes wrote in the Instagram post. Hamlin's cardiac arrest happened as the Bills were taking on the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023. Hamlin collapsed on the field at 8:56 p.m. ET, and his heartbeat was restored by first responders on-field before he was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Hamlin recovered and was discharged from the hospital a week later. Later in the year, Hamlin won the George Halas Award which is given to the NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most adversity to succeed. He also won the Pat Tillman Award at the ESPY Awards.
This season, Hamin has played in five games and recorded two tackles. In October, Hamlin talked about making his return to football nine months after the incident. "Really big. That moment was everything to me," Hamlin said following the Bills' 48-20 win over the Miami Dolphins, per the Associated Press.
"I think it was more so about promising to myself than anything else, just showing myself that I have the courage, I have the strength, that I have the pride, everything, all those words, in me to be able to go through something traumatic and to be able to come back from it," he added. "To be able to still do what I love at the highest level in the world is amazing."
In the same month, Bills quarterback Josh Allen talked about how Hamlin's comeback impacted the team. "For him to come back and obviously make the squad and be an inspiration, not just to us, but so many people in the world, he's done so much good," Allen said on Let's Go! podcast, per Pro Football Talk. "Not in this area alone, like in the entire country in terms of bringing awareness to CPR and raising money and donating the defibrillators, the AEDs to high schools and little league teams around the country. And I think that that's so freaking cool that he's been able to turn such a tragic moment in his life into such a positive movement that could very well end up saving people's lives. And I think that's very powerful in itself."