There’s a three-letter word tattooed on the left arm of KU forward Lilly Meister that explains everything about her feelings on transferring to Kansas.
The fact that the word also represents the very thing that her maternal grandmother has always lived for is merely a bonus.
Welcome to the Year of Joy for the newest Kansas women’s basketball player.
Meister comes to Kansas after three seasons at Indiana, where she was both productive and important to the Hoosiers’ lineup.
She has deep roots in the state of Kansas, though, and is beyond thrilled to be playing her final season at her dream school.
She’s excited about the team she joined and has high expectations for everything the 2025-26 Jayhawks can accomplish.
And whether she plays 10 minutes a game or all 40, she said she looks at the opportunity ahead as a bonus and a beautiful way to close out her college career, saying simply, “I’ll find a way to enjoy it.”
There’s that word again. At least in part. Joy.
So, what gives and why does Meister have the word tattooed on her body?
“My grandma collects joy, so she has joy everything,” she said of her maternal grandmother, Judy, who lives on some land outside of Rochester, Minnesota. “She has a whole Christmas tree with all-joy ornaments, everywhere in her house is joy, joy, joy. That’s always been her thing, joy.”
Meister’s favorite piece of joy memorabilia that her grandmother owns is a trio of 5-foot-tall block letters that read J-O-Y and sit outside of the house during the holidays.
“They’re huge. They’re like red with white lights around them,” Meister marveled.
While a fairly large amount of Judy’s joy collection is Christmas-themed, Meister said she has plenty of non-Christmas joy in the house, as well.
“Oh yeah,” she said incredulously. “Anytime she talks to anyone, somehow she’s mentioning joy.”
And now grandma has a new way to weave the word into conversations with friends and strangers alike.
“Oh, she was so happy when I told her I got it,” Meister recalled of the 2-year-old tattoo. “Now, anytime she talks to anybody she’ll mention that she has a granddaughter with a joy tattoo. I never thought my grandma would be proud of a tattoo. Funny how things work out.”
The funny part is that the JOY tat is actually Meister’s second. And she has plans for a third. A sunflower, to honor her other grandmother and the “Kansas side” of her family.
“I was going to get that one before I even got here,” she said. “That’s for my other grandma. My dad’s mom. She grew up in Kansas and it just so happens that I’m in Kansas now, too. So, now it’s like I have to get it.”
Meister’s first tattoo was a small black cross that rests on the outside of her right wrist. She got that one while in Indiana. And she didn’t even tell her family about that one. It sort of broke the ice for the two to come, and no one has been anything other than, well, joyful, about her ink of choice.
As for how she plans to get maximum joy out of her lone year as a Jayhawk, Meister said she had a plan for that, no matter how much she plays or how many games her team wins.
“I think just attending as much as I can, a bunch of different sporting events, trying to do things with my teammates and things like that,” she said. “Just things that I can remember and carry with me all the time.”
Some of those things have already started with hangouts and summer workouts aplenty already a part of her experience.
And with the start of school less than a month out and preseason practice nearing shortly after that, there are many joyful moments still ahead for the 6-foot-3 forward who will wear No. 52 for the Jayhawks.
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