LONDON — In the giddy aftermath of England’s 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Sweden in the World Cup on Saturday, Andy Ward staggered out of a pub and into a tattoo parlor. He stripped off his shirt and bared his chest to a shaver. Then a tattoo artist etched St. George’s Cross — the English flag — over his heart.

Mr. Ward, 51, a decorator, concedes he might have been a bit tipsy at the time. But he doesn’t regret his decision, at all.

“No one expected this,” he said on Monday, sipping a pint at a southwest London pub and showing off his new tattoo. “We only dreamed of getting so far. We’re not used to this kind of success.”

He was talking about the fact that England hasn’t won the World Cup since 1966 — and, more recently, has endured one World Cup disappointment after another. Suddenly, a young, dynamic team led by a manager who has become an unexpected national hero is two wins away from reclaiming the cup, while England, which has been cleaved by politics and hasn’t had much to celebrate of late, is going, well, nuts.