By Vince Rugari
Al Ain: It's hard to find a footballer without a tattoo these days. It's even harder to find one with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference inked permanently on their skin.
Jackson Irvine is a rare breed. Nobody in the Socceroos squad stands out from the pack as much as the intelligent, ponytailed 25-year-old – particularly once you get to know him. But nobody blends in quite as well, either.
If you didn't know Irvine had racked up 28 caps for Australia and carved out a promising career in England's Championship for Hull City, it would be almost impossible to pick. He doesn't look like a typical footballer, nor does he act like one. In a good way.
Glory daze: Jackson Irivne celebrates as the Socceroos qualify for the 2018 World Cup.Credit: AAP
"I'd like to think I'm the kind of person who if I ever got stuck in a lift with anybody, I'd be OK," Irvine says.
Let's start with the tattoos, which reveal plenty about his personality. Irvine is a total pop-culture fiend. "Once more, with feeling" is scrawled across his chest: the title of the critically acclaimed musical episode of Buffy.
On the back of his ankles is another iconic TV quote, this time from Seinfeld: "Serenity now, insanity later", the immortal words of Lloyd Braun. Although, for the record, Irvine's favourite episode is "The Contest".
On his forearm is a setting sun and the ominous words "Over soon". "It's kind of a sunrise or a sunset, whichever way you look at it," he says. "And it might all be over soon, who knows? It's not as grim as it sounds."
Jacko's different, but I love that he embraces it. You've seen with his tattoos - they're random, but they're cool. That's just how he is.
Jamie Maclaren on Jackson Irvine
There's more: a cartoon of a woman and an old-school telephone with the cord tangled around her neck; a geometric flower; Lou Reed's face from the cover of his seminal 1972 album Transformer; and the first one he got, at age 23, the wolf from Fantastic Mr. Fox, which features in what he says is probably his favourite scene in movie history.
Words to live by: Jackson Irvine's tattoo celebrating a famous episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Credit: FFA/Tristan Furney
He also has his next one planned: the "meanwhile hands" from another TV show, Twin Peaks.
Needless to say, these are not footballer tats.
Irvine’s taste in music is equally eclectic: from heavy metal to hip-hop, techno to classic rock, and everything in between. He dabbles with the guitar himself. Listening to him reel off recommendations feels a bit like speaking to a human version of the "best new music" section at Pitchfork.com.
"I listen to a lot of music, I try and see live music whenever I can," Irvine says. "My music goes through these weird phases. But I'm really into new wave, synth-pop kind of tunes at the moment. I'm really into this Scandinavian band called GENTS, and there's this really cool electro duo called Let's Eat Grandma – two girls, I think they're like 18, 19 from Norwich. They're really, really cool."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Irvine's playlists don't get much of a run in the Socceroos dressing room before training.
"We skip Jacko and then we go to someone else," laughs striker Jamie Maclaren, who has known Irvine since he was seven years old. The pair grew up playing football together for Victoria. Maclaren had no idea who Reed was until Irvine got his tattoo. ("Don't tell him that!")
"He likes different music," Maclaren says. "I don't think any of the boys would have 1960s music on their iPad, but he does. I wouldn't be surprised if just before we go out, he's listening to Frank Sinatra while we're listening to Eminem or something."
So how on Earth does Irvine, with his alternative edge and refined tastes, fit into the stereotypical culture of professional football? The answer is he doesn't – but he gets by.
"In terms of a lot of my interests ... it's probably the complete opposite to most of the boys I come across in football," he says. "It just seems to be the natural order of things. The banter's always been good, and I've always been good at adapting into different environments.
"With some people, you may have limited interests in common, and they find it hard to settle into certain social situations, but it's not something I've struggled with. Maybe politics and the arts don't come up as often as I would like, but we do have those conversations at times."
Irvine's teammates wouldn't have him any other way.
"Jacko's different, but I love that he embraces it," Maclaren says. "He doesn't care about what people say or how it looks. If Jacko likes it, he likes it. You've seen with his tattoos – they're random, but they're cool. That's just how he is."
It helps that he can play. In fact, the Asian Cup might be remembered as the tournament where Irvine cemented his spot in the Australian set-up.
For years he has been around the fringes of the starting team, deployed primarily off the bench as a midfield utility. But in the UAE, he's been essential, and he is expected to play another integral role in their round of 16 clash with Uzbekistan on Tuesday morning (1am, AEDT).
After using him as a substitute in their first up loss to Jordan, coach Graham Arnold handed Irvine his start against Palestine to leverage his physical presence and aerial ability.
Open to interpretation: Another one of Jackson Irvine's peculiar tattoos.Credit: FFA/Tristan Furney
Again, you wouldn't know it by looking at him, but Irvine is absolutely not afraid to get stuck in – something he attributes to being thrown into the chaos of Victorian State League One for Frankston Pines at the age of 15.
"He's got a bit of Scottish in him, so that does help," Maclaren says. "He's played at Celtic, so he knows what it's like to have that sort of grunt ... he's hard as nails, although he's skinny, but he's a quality player and he's only getting better."
Like a few of his contemporaries in the squad, Irvine senses his opportunity to establish himself as a permanent Socceroos starter has arrived.
"With the voids left by arguably two of our most successful Socceroos ever, a lot of us who have been involved now for two or three years, it's on us to really step into these roles," Irvine says.
"We understand what it means to play for this team now and play for our country. It's time for the next generation to become those experienced heads and carry that on for the younger players who are coming through."