"I became a big hockey fan and to show my loyalty to the Flyers, I thought it'd be cool. So I decided to hit him up this summer when he came to visit me.''
And Cote agreed.
Cote traveled to Gemma's new shop, Secret Society Tattooing in Worcester, Mass., shortly before training camp to put a new spin on one of the NHL's most tradition-rich logos.
He realized as soon as he began to work on Gemma that there are no test runs or mulligans in the tattoo world.
"I was really nervous," Cote recalled last week. "I had never done anything like that before. I just didn't want to screw up."
Cote produced and edited a video of the experience, filled with a lot of laughs, and put it on YouTube (tinyurl.com/CoteTattoo). He wasn't too thrilled with the results.
"When you're far away, it doesn't look that bad," Cote said in the video. "But then you get up close and you're like, 'Whoa.' It's rugged-looking."
But Gemma was prepared for Cote's amateur skills. He knew it was all in good fun.
"If it came out rough and ragged, I thought it would be suitable, coming from him,'' Gemma said.
After all, Cote is a hockey player - not an artist. He says he never has been too artistically inclined but gained a greater appreciation for the skills involved with tattooing through the experience.
"You're holding the gun so tight, you don't want to let it slip," Cote said. "When you trace over a line, it makes it dark - but you don't want to retrace over it again because then it makes it too thick."
"It looks easy when someone knows the design and the equipment,'' Gemma said. "There is a definite science for doing it. I'm not sure people have a full appreciation for the art that goes behind it."
