Britain’s most tattooed man who has The Jeremy Kyle Show logo inked on his head was left fighting for his life after being stabbed in ‘hate crime’
Body Art - formerly known as Matthew Whelan - has dyed eyeballs, a forked tongue and no nipples
BRITAIN’S most tattooed man – who has The Jeremy Kyle Show tattooed on his head – has revealed he was stabbed in the head in a “hate crime”.
The 37-year-old, who was born Matthew Whelan but changed his name to Body Art, has called for an end to discrimination towards people with body modifications.
The Birmingham man, whose full name is King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite has taken body modifications to the extreme after getting addicted as a teenager.
As well as head to toe tattoos, including the Jeremy Kyle logo he had inked before he went on the show, he has had both his eyeballs died black, split his tongue, removed his nipples to make room for tattoos and carved 'teeth marks' into his ears.
But he said thugs have targeted him because of his looks.
He told : "It’s a very mixed reaction. I find it quite fascinating when I’m with new people because I’m unique people stare, and it's a new experience for them.
"I'm used to it as it has been happening for years. You don't do something like this and not expect that.
"The reactions can go from amazement to hate crime."
Body Art was left fighting for his life by the 2009 stabbing and was in a wheelchair for weeks while he recovered.
He says he has faced discrimination from the state and employers and hit out at laws that call those who undergo modifications as ‘victims’.
Offences against the Person Act 1861 classifies people who undergo extreme modifications such as dying their eyeballs as consensual victims.
Body Art got his first tattoo at 16, and was instantly hooked.
He said: "Modified people are proud people, we are proud to be modified. They haven't been forced into it, it’s something that many people will have thought long and hard about.
"It doesn't matter what you look like, on the inside everyone is the same. We are people at the end of the day."
He added: "But they say we are consenting to bodily harm. It’s ridiculous and it embarrasses us. The law is wrong.”