Launceston mayor Matthew Garwood has returned to the city’s top job with a new tattoo of the Pokemon Gyarados on the side of his head.
Garwood said he had been working on the design with Launceston tattoo artist Haileii Ballas for some time and found the time to get it done around the election campaign.
He plans to go back to have the colour added.
He said he waited until enough hair had grown back so he did not look like “half a skin man” in this week’s mayoral and council photos.
“It’s one of the more gnarly spots. Yeah, it wasn’t pleasurable,” he said of the experience.
Garwood said he grew up with the original 151 Pokemon, which marked 30 years this year.
His wife, Michelle, recently got a large Gyarados tattooed on her back.
The tattoo has been “received pretty well”, he said, although his growing audience online had brought some comments that were “not as favourable”.
“At the end of the day, it’s my body, my choice,” he said.
“It never, ever will be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s about what I like too and continuing on to have a bit of fun.”
Garwood said his family was supportive of him but not keen on his tattoos.
He said the photos of him on his nan’s fridge and mantelpiece were “deliberately curated” and mostly showed him in a suit and chains.
“They will support me to the end of time,” he said. “They will also be very honest that they are not super keen on tattoos.”
Asked if he was the only mayor with a tattoo on his head or face, Garwood said the head was different because a tattoo could hide under hair.
“There very well could have been or could be some mayors with little hidden tattoos in different places like on the scalp or on the side of the head,” he said.
“I think where you start to get a bit different is, yeah, your neck and your sideburns and stuff, but I think it’s pretty cool.”
Garwood said the election result had made him feel more confident about being himself in the role.
He received 18,395 first preference votes in the mayoral count and was re-elected with 53.2% after preferences.
He said winning three quotas on first preferences in the councillor count, when no other candidate reached one quota, was “really validating”.
“Maybe people actually don’t mind as much of someone looking a bit different,” he said.
“There still has to be respect and there still has to be a level of appropriate attire in certain situations and so forth, but at the end of the day, I’m just a normal guy.”
The new council is going through induction this week, working through budgets, finances and rating frameworks.
Garwood said councillors were getting along with some of their “most vocal competitors” from the campaign.
“We’re all getting on really well and it’s… really exciting for Launnie,” he said.
