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Britain’s most tattooed man has revealed he is ‘petrified’ of needles despite spending 1,600 hours being injected with ink.
King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite, better known as Bodyart, has covered almost every inch of his body in tattoos and has even had ink injected directly into his eyeballs.
Despite getting his first tattoo at 16, and going on to have various body modifications including parts of his ears removed, needles still ‘terrify’ him.
Speaking to Metro, the 46-year-old, who was born Mathew Whelan before he changed his name by deed poll, said: ‘Given the amount of tattoos I’ve got, you’d assume needles don’t bother me.
‘I remember getting the TB jab and it scared me out of my wits. I hated it and thought that I’m going to do whatever’s humanly possible to avoid them.’
The tattoo enthusiast, who previously worked as a call handler before moving into voluntary roles, says this fear has made every tattoo session a mental battle.
‘No pain, no gain is the way I look at it,’ he said. ‘You can’t have the artwork without the pain.
‘I look forward to the end result. If I want a piece of art on my body, I have to go through a war with my body.’
To make the process as painless as possible, Bodyart ensures he gets a good night’s sleep before a session, drinks lots of fluid to keep him hydrated and works with a relaxing tattoo artist.
Bodyart got his first tattoo, an English bulldog on his right arm, when he was just 16 years old at a studio in Digbeth, Birmingham.
‘It got infected and people I worked with kept slapping my arm which made it worse.