Blinded by the Slice
Blindspots and the tattoo heard 'round Twitter
It was April 10, 2021 and the Southwest dorm area basketball court in Amherst, Mass. was exploding.
Students were screaming and celebrating, people were hanging and climbing on the backboards while poor local news crews tried to get footage of students celebrating without being overrun in the joyful chaos. Some 500 miles away, the UMass faithful were partying just as hard in Pittsburgh, having just watched the Minutemen, once the laughingstock of the Hockey East, complete their ascension to the top of collegiate hockey by winning the national championship.
It was eight days before that happened that Matt Civello, better known as Blindspots on Twitter, updated his followers and the members of UMass Twitter that just two wins stood between him and a promise he’d made to himself, UMass Hockey and UMass fans.
“There are receipts out there, I believe I first said it back in 2018 before the run,” said Blindspots. “I think I said, ‘If UMass wins the title, I’m getting a Mr. Slice tattoo.’ And we let destiny figure out the rest. It was a huge high after the national title but a few days later I just contacted my artist. He was completely in love with idea, I think lots of people are. I went in later that week and the rest is history.”
Deservedly, Blindspots will forever be remembered in UMass and UMass Twitter history as the man who got a tattoo of Mr. Slice after the University of Massachusetts Hockey team won the national championship.
“I’m a man of the people.”
Civello has been around the UMass community for a while. His dad graduated from the University of Massachusetts in the 70s and he made plenty of trips to Amherst as a kid. After doing two years at Bunker Hill Community College, he transferred to UMass and graduated as a political science major in 2011.
And most importantly, he’s been attending various UMass sporting events over the years.
“I was a UMass sports fan growing up,” Civello explained. “But getting on campus really ratcheted that up a bit. And hockey specifically, pretty much made my group of friends, to this day. From watching hockey… Seeing a packed student section, not really a packed Mullins during those years, really made me fall in love with the sport.”
It might be hard for newer UMass fans to picture it, but for the majority of the Minutemen’s time on the ice, the program was a disaster. The team was dropped as a sponsored varsity sport. Twice. And after it was resurrected by passionate fans and alumni for the second time, in 1985, it still dwelled in the deep cellar of the Hockey East for the better part of 30 years.
“When I first came in it was the big James Marcou for Hobey [Baker award] year.” said Civello. “There was a lot of potential… Casey Wellman, Paul Dainton, all those folks. We were all right, we were challenging for Hockey East, but after my first year it completely fell off the cliff.”
And after several more years of ineptitude, the program hired Greg Carvel. And despite a five-win initial campaign in the 2016-17 season, Carvel quickly transformed the Minutemen into a true title contender. With a consistency that no UMass program has had since the days of John Calipari.
In Carvel’s third season at the helm, behind Hobey Baker award-winner Cale Makar and a deep roster filled with names like John Leonard, Marco Bozzo, Matt Murray, Mario Ferraro, Jack Suter, Niko Hildenbrand, Oliver Chau and Mitchell Chaffee, just to name a few, the Minutemen went to the national championship, losing to Minnesota-Duluth 3-0.
“2019 was a great experience, I had the opportunity of travelling to Buffalo for the semifinal as well as the final,” Civello said. “It was life changing, I always was hoping there’d be another opportunity and thank God, we had it a couple years later.”
Sure enough, UMass got another chance two years later in 2021.
The Minutemen got revenge by defeating Minnesota-Duluth in the Frozen Four. And then steam rolled St. Cloud State, 5-0, to win the hockey programs’ first ever national championship. And while the players and coaches got rings and a trophy, Civello got something very different.
“In the last few years I’ve been getting more serious with the tattoos,” said Civello. “For me, I think it’s a mental health thing. Loving your body, loving yourself, if you can make that jump to turning yourself into a wall it helps. I’ve definitely been getting and will continue to get tattoos.”
But this was no mere victory tattoo that Blindspots got. It wasn’t plain words or his team’s name or something small. Matter of fact, the tattoo isn’t even of UMass. No the tattoo, that stands in large depiction on his leg and will rightfully immortalize him amongst UMass faithful is, of Mr. Slice on ice skates holding a hockey stick with 2021 written under the skates.
And believe it or not, the image is steeped in history for UMass fans, hockey fans in particular.
“Mr. Slice is a pizza mascot for I believe Papa John’s,” Blindspots explained. “Which, to state for the record – I hate Papa John’s. (Mr. Slice) has been passed on to me from Fear The Triangle and the diehards that were there in the early 90s. Essentially, an ongoing promotion where they had that Mr. Slice mascot go in net and be the goalie and people would take shots on Slice and try to win prizes.”
“I recall people yelling out and heckling people, ‘Mr. Slice owns you!’ That was kind of a running joke among UMass people. We used to talk about Mr. Slice and the like. And then Carvel came back and they decided to relaunch him with the whole NewMass thing.”
And with the revival of Mr. Slice and the continued improvement of UMass Hockey, the idea was born. It was in 2018, before the first Frozen Four run that Blindspots tweeted that he would get a Mr. Slice tattoo if UMass Hockey won the national championship.
“I’ve always found tattoo bets cute, I think it’s a put your money where your mouth is type thing.” said Blindspots. “At the end of the day, worst case scenario is you win a national championship, and you have to get a dumb tattoo with it.”
And while the title eluded the Minutemen in 2019, in 2021 the program broke through.
“It [the tattoo] was bigger than I expected,” Blindspots admitted laughing. “But once I sat down, it felt right and I have plenty of years to regret it, nothing yet [though].”
The Minutemen play again today, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After repeating as Hockey East tournament winners, UMass hopes to go back-to-back in the national tournament as well. As for Blindspots, he hasn’t made a big promise yet, but he’s more than willing to get another tattoo should UMass win again.
“I’m always down for putting my money where my mouth is,” said Blindspots with a grin. “I was very happy to find out Coach Carvel was aware of the bet on the way up to the title. That was something I loved finding out after the fact... I will say this – if Coach Carvel names what I’m doing, I’ll get it, 100%. And if he doesn’t want that mantle, we’ll see what the great UMass Twitter community says.”
He’s a man of the people after all.