It's not something most of us would need reminding about, but delighted Wayne Hughes has immortalized his £1.1 million (US$1.7 million) lottery win — by having it etched on to his arm.
Shop worker Hughes, 34, marked the windfall with a tattoo that reads, "Sat 7th Aug 2010" — along with his lucky numbers, 13, 16, 22, 25, 31, 39.
Hughes found out he was a winner after his mother checked his ticket and called him with the good news.
He raced over to her house and "checked and double checked" his ticket on Teletext.
"It was late so I hid the ticket in an old CD box until the morning when I called Camelot," Hughes said. "I still can't believe I am a winner, it seems completely unreal."
As he received his check yesterday, Hughes revealed that he now aims to fulfill his dream of taking an IT course at a university. In the meantime he plans to carry on working at his local Wilkinson retail store in Holyhead, North Wales.
"I enjoy the job and I like the people there," he said. Bachelor Wayne also plans a holiday — and is not fussy where.
"I may just turn up at the airport to get the first flight out, so I can get my head round being a winner," Hughes added.
After moving out of his rented flat and buying a house, Hughes aims to buy a car as well as treating family and friends.
"Having this money means I can go and study without any worries about where the cash will come from."
The lucky winner bought his ticket from the Co-op, and picked his winning numbers by mostly using family birthdays.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
Thanks to Marianne for the tip.
OUCH!! Nice calligraphy on the tat. Congrats to Mr. Hughes.
Yeah, the tattoo is very nicely written.
Wow , if I had a ticket with numbers like that it'd drive me nuts.
EDIT: The four letter version of a water blocking structure is blocked now? O_o
You gotta be sure when putting ink to body. I hope he doesn't go broke. Might be a painful reminder of his once-held riches.
Congratulations Wayne! And to think that if you had won $800,000 more than you wouldn't even have to muddle a turned leisure lifestyle by taking any additional schooling! Sounds like your mom is very loving towards you!
I am admused by your tatoo idea, I don't think ever done before by a lottery jackpot winner -- color and script look very good. Yet, hope that you don't suffer from any toxic ink in your bloodstreem problems here on out.
If I won any amount in the lottery, I would never admit it, let alone allow myself to be photographed. Wayne Hughes even tells us where he works, at the Wilkinson retail store in Holyhead, North Wales! Now he's going to have all sorts of people coming at him asking for money! I can't believe how many of these lottery winners don't think about these things.
If I won the lottery, even if the media got wind of it, I would never admit it. I would never tell anyone I won. I would go the blind trust via lawyer route. Look at what happened to Jack Whittaker, the largest USA lottery winner. He won US$315 million in the Powerball multi-state lottery, became world famous, and now he has all kinds of legal problems. He's so famous, he even has a page in Wikipedia!
On another note, UK winners do NOT have to pay taxes. I found this info on the official UK lottery site, on their "Service Guide" page:
"Are my winnings tax free?
Normally winnings are not subject to tax."
At least Wayne Hughes will be able to keep all his $1.7M winnings. How come we don't have that here in the USA too? If you win the lotto here in the USA, the federal government swoops in and takes 35%! Most states take an additional tax!
"At least Wayne Hughes will be able to keep all his $1.7M winnings. How come we don't have that here in the USA too? If you win the lotto here in the USA, the federal government swoops in and takes 35%!"
Because here, the government considers our money their money to fritter away anyway they please because we won't throw their @sses out for doing it.
They may get the shock of their lives this November.
One of the reasons is because most people in Europe pay approximately 51% income taxes! That is one of the BIG reasons why the original Americans/Patriots fought for separation from England, recall now? Anyhow, I'm glad that we aren't forced to pay that in the U.S.A. anymore.
Fortunately, when great president Ronald Reagan came into office he successfully lowered our tax brackets so that the good 'ole U.S.A. income earners enjoyed that continued spiral for about 15 years. Now our new president has begun our spiral up again (I hope that the upper tax brackets don't reach the past long-term high of 70%).
HaveABall,
I've got news for you. The highest income tax bracket for the federal government is ~35%. The highest income tax bracket for many state governments is ~10%. I'm just guestimating here. With the federal Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), it's probably slightly higher. That's ~45% total. Now throw in SSI (FICA) of 6.20% and guess what, you now have ~51.2%!! LOL
I don't know if I can post the Wikipedia link here (it could be verboten) so go to their site at Social_Security, United_States and click on "Taxation" in the Table of Contents, if you don't believe me.
To be fair though, in Europe, they have their "value added tax" which raises on the price on nearly everything except food, I think. That means computer hardware, home electronics hardware, and everything else is 20% (I think) higher. However, this is how the Europeans, including the British, pay for their universal health care so there are tangible benefits.
As for President Ronald Reagan, yes, he did lower taxes. However, he was also the first American president to substantially increase the federal debt. Before President Reagan, the total federal debt was quite small. Now the USA pays $240 billion yearly, and that will increase, just for the interest on the total federal debt of $13.258 Trillion, which is also increasing. Interest payments are the fourth largest single budgeted disbursement category, only after defense, Social Security, and Medicare.
The USA is essentially drowning in debt now, made worse from borrowing by Presidents Bush (43) and Obama. However, this trend was started by President Ronald Reagan. All he did was push our problems into the future, which is now.
President Reagan was a piker when it came to spending compared with Obama.
Even the Bushes were bigger spenders than Reagan.
The libs went crazy about W's spending and the national debt on a daily basis. That's all you heard from the liberal media.
Then Obama came in and promptly doubled Bush's spending and national debt and what do we hear from the news media now?
What is that?
I think it's crickets.
Do you hear crickets?
I hear crickets.
rdgrnr,
my point was that President Reagan started the USA policy of deficit spending. There are 2 points I want to make:
$1.5 Trillion is more than all the programs spent by President Obama, combined, after refunds from bailed out companies. Most people don't realize this, but wars are not only expensive, but they also cause recessions, as they did during the 1950's Korean War and the 1960's Vietnam War.
Ronaldus Magnus raised the debt about 9.3% as a percentage of the GDP.
HW Bush - about 15%
GW Bush - about 20% in his last term.
Obama will blow them all away combined, trust me.
That man is a walking catastrophe for this nation.
You can go on blaming everybody but Obama for what's going on now just like he does but you ain't foolin nobody and neither is he.
This is Obama's nightmare we're in and nobody else's.
It's nice to hear somebody blame Reagan though for a change.
That blaming Bush thing is getting worn out.
This is the "It ain't my fault!" Presidency.
And it is a disaster.