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. But I'm petrified of them and have been since school. 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.'
A Mental Battle
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.
First Tattoo Nearly His Last
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. 'Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,' he said. 'It got infected and people I worked with kept slapping my arm which made it worse. My very first tattoo was almost my very last tattoo.'
Despite the experience, he found himself drawn back and had another tattoo around a year later amid threats from his parents that they'd kick him out of the family home in Birmingham if he did. Luckily they didn't, and he went on to spend over £30,000 covering almost his entire body in ink, earning him the mantle of Britain's most tattooed man. This has included having ink injected directly into his eyeballs in 2012 and 2014.
Facial Recognition Issues
His extreme appearance has conflicted with facial recognition technology and he previously revealed it has stopped him accessing pornography as the scanners believe he is wearing a mask. Yet the process has never been easy, and Bodyart has never lost his fear of needles. To minimise this phobia, he uses the above techniques to help him cope with the pain and anxiety he experiences whenever a needle touches his skin.
Guinness World Record Attempt
These methods were tested to the limit in 2016 when he was suspended from the ceiling while 36 certified tattoo artists worked on him simultaneously for a Guinness World Record. 'It was like Armageddon but I got through it,' he explained. 'I've been told so many techniques for dealing with my fear. Sometimes they work, like the breathing techniques old school tattoo artists give you, but sometimes they don't. You'd breathe in while the needles are slowly tearing into your flesh and breathe out again. Sometimes it works but other times I end up hyperventilating and thinking: "Why am I going through this?"'
No Regrets
Despite being covered almost entirely in ink, Bodyart has drawn red lines at having his eyelids or lips tattooed because of the pain. But there is little else left to ink up, and Bodyart has not had a tattoo for the past four-and-a-half years. His last piece was a blackout half-sleeve, which he says could one day be covered with further tattoos. For now, he has swapped getting ink for collecting artwork. Despite his fear of needles, Bodyart insists he has no regrets. 'I just love the art,' he said. 'The fear never goes away, but neither does my passion.'
