Mark Shenefield,<\/a> Sunday night\u2019s game between the Cowboys and Packers will unfold in a sad and somber atmosphere.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cTattoo Mark,\u201d as the Cowboys superfan was known, died of a heart attack Oct. 13 at age 64.<\/p>\n
His death has deeply affected everyone who shared his passion for the Cowboys, as well as the many people he touched through his acts of kindness.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very difficult to watch Sunday\u2019s game without Mark among us,\u201d said Sam Lopez, a San Angelo resident who had known Shenefield for 12 years.<\/p>\n
Lopez first met Shenefield at a Cowboys game in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Shenefield, a lifelong Dallas fan, lived in Whittier, near Los Angeles. He never missed a chance to go to the stadium and watch his Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Lopez and a group of Cowboys fans traveled to Los Angeles for that game, and that\u2019s where their friendship began.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark became a great friend of mine. He was kind, friendly and generous,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
![\"Miguel]()
<\/p>\n
Miguel \u201cSupercowboy\u201d Castellanos , of Grand Prairie, and Mark \u201cTattoo Mark\u201d Shenefield ham it up together before the first half of a NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium parking lot in Arlington, TX on Sunday, October 3, 2021. (John F. Rhodes \/ Special Contributor)<\/p>\n
John F. Rhodes\/Special Contributor<\/p>\n
Shenefield was retired and had no family, except for a niece who lives in Southern California.<\/p>\n
Shenefield\u2019s parents and grandmother died from heart-related problems.<\/p>\n
Knowing that his family’s genetics could one day deal him the same fate as his closest relatives,\u00a0Shenefield made a decision: to leave Los Angeles and move to Arlington so he could spend whatever time he had left as close as possible to his beloved Cowboys.<\/p>\n
That is how Shenefield came to North Texas and rented an apartment in the complex directly across from AT&T Stadium.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
His passion for the Cowboys and the way he showed it quickly made him an icon among the team\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n
Shenefield\u2019s body was covered in tattoos. \u201cAt least 23 of them were related to the Cowboys\u201d, Lopez said.<\/p>\n
The most striking was a tattoo of Emmitt Smith that covered nearly his entire back.<\/p>\n
According to Lopez, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once referred to Shenefield as the Cowboys\u2019 \u201cwalking billboard.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dallas]()
<\/p>\n
Dallas Cowboys fan “Tattoo Mark” Shenefield shows off one of his tattoos, a memorial to Texas Stadium, while waiting for his team to take the field for practice at training camp on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015, in Oxnard, Calif. (Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool – Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
The day before he died, Shenefield was with a CBS crew filming a promotional spot for a Cowboys game.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next day, we didn\u2019t hear from him, and then I got the news that he had been found dead,\u201d Lopez said.\u00a0\u201cIt’s a shame. Just last week, we got together to plan a cruise in December. He was very excited about the trip.”<\/p>\n
Shenefield was a fixture at Cowboys home games.<\/p>\n
He could be seen walking through the AT&T Stadium parking lots, cheering for his team and interacting with fans.<\/p>\n
People loved him, Lopez said, because his presence alone radiated joy and positivity.<\/p>\n
Although he lived on a fixed income, Shenefield attended every Cowboys home game and sometimes traveled to watch the team on the road.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
His passion for the Cowboys wasn\u2019t the only thing that set him apart.<\/p>\n
Six years ago, Shenefield founded the Tattoo Mark Foundation, a nonprofit organization that collects new teddy bears for children receiving treatment at hospitals throughout the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark loved children. I think it was because he never had children of his own. And since he didn\u2019t have a family, he poured his heart into children,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Shenefield struggled with his weight, and because of his family\u2019s medical history, he felt his time might be coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the main reason he created the foundation. He wanted to leave a legacy of love and be an example of helping the community,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Dozens of messages of condolence for Shenefield\u2019s death have appeared on social media.<\/p>\n
The nine years he spent in North Texas were enough to leave a deep impression on many people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark was like my brother. We spent a lot of time together. His death has affected me deeply,\u201d said Jose Maturino, a member of Rowdy Nation Tailgating, of which Shenefield was also a part.<\/p>\n
Maturino and Shenefield attended Thursday night’s game together at AT&T Stadium, where the Cowboys lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n
Two days later, Maturino went to Shenefield\u2019s home to visit him and spend the afternoon together.<\/p>\n
Their conversation turned to a premonition of what would happen a couple of days later.<\/p>\n
\u201cMark was still really upset about the loss to Tampa and told me, \u2018I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever see the Cowboys win another Super Bowl in my life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Shenefield\u2019s body remains at a local morgue. His friends set up a GoFundMe account <\/a>to raise the money needed to send his remains back to California. \u00a0In Whittier, his niece will bury him next to his mother, as he had wished.<\/p>\nOn Sunday, Rowdy Nation Tailgating will hold a watch party at Bombshells Restaurant & Bar in Arlington to celebrate Shenefield\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Before the Cowboys vs. Packers kickoff, Shenefield\u2019s friends and loved ones will release balloons in his memory in the venue\u2019s parking lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlue and white balloons will reach him in the sky,\u201d Maturino said. \u201cThe colors of the team Mark loved so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dallas]()
<\/p>\n
Dallas Cowboys fan Mark “Tattoo Mark” Shenefield cheers during a draft party for the first round of the NFL Draft at The Star in Frisco on Thursday, April 25, 2024.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys fan Mark “Tattoo Mark” Shenefield watches pregame warmups before the team faces the Tampa Bay Buccaneers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,99207,93042,88229],"class_list":["post-469601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-sports-cowboys","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys","tag-tp-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}