Who is Kevin Paul? Ed Sheeran’s tattoo artist and rumoured Celebrity Big Brother housemate
ED Sheeran's tattoo artist Kevin Paul is rumoured to be going into the Celebrity Big Brother house this summer.
But what do we know about this heavily-inked man who has a feud with Jemma Lucy? Here is the lowdown...
Who is Kevin Paul, how old is he and what does he do?
Kevin Paul is a famous tattoo artist and began body art when he was just 13 years old.
The 39-year-old was born in Leeds, grew up in Swadlincote and is currently based in Derby.
Kevin is responsible for many of Ed Sheeran’s 60 tattoos, which all have a personal meaning to him.
The ink wizard, who starred on Channel 5’s Tattoo Disasters, spent over 40 hours working the colourful patchwork of inkings that stretch across Ed’s arms and chest last year.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun online, Kevin said: “I’m still working with Ed, and we talk quite a bit about what we’re doing and plans for more designs.
“I’ve pretty much covered Ed. Both his arms are complete, we’ve done all the front of his body and out of everyone I’ve ever tattooed he’s the most controversial because of the designs."
He continued: “It does look like a five year old’s drawing with all the sketches, but that’s the style he likes.
“He loves art and they’re all very personal. Those tattoos ARE Ed. Ed is very flamboyant and bright and they are very cartoonlike, because Ed has an inner child.
“If some random came in off the street and said ‘I want Pingu on my arm’ I would probably question it but Ed thinks about everything he has done seriously.”
Kevin also revealed the singer has an incredibly laid-back attitude to the pain involved.
“The last time I tattooed Ed he fell asleep,” he revealed.
“It was on his rib so it was a painful area but he was so chilled. He was snoring for 20 minutes!"
Ed’s sixty tattoos include a huge lion on his chest to celebrate sold-out Wembley tour dates, a teddy bear after his childhood nickname Ted, and the iconic Rolling Stones lips logo to commemorate his idols.
“Sometimes he’d travel to me but usually we’d go round to his house, put on a boxset and order Nando’s, and do a bit of tattooing. It was all very chilled.
“Ed now has thirty tattoos on his front, plus countless ones down his arms.
“Every single one recently involved horrific pain, especially around the ribs and I remember one time he had to fly out to Italy the next day, and had this awful, weeping tattoo seeping through the clingfilm used to protect it. It wasn’t an ideal situation.”
Kevin's other celebrity clients include Harry Styles and Rihanna.
However, Kevin isn't a fan of Rihanna's latest hand tattoo and hates the design she got done elsewhere.
Kevin claims the Work singer came to him to cover a tribal Maori design on her fingers.
He told The Sun Online: “Rihanna had a traditional design done with bamboo on her fingers which didn’t look very professional so she wanted a Mandala pattern over it.
“But I thought it wouldn’t look right, so I advised her not to do it.”
Rihanna flew LA artist Kevin McCurdy out to the Dominican Republic and asked him to do the cover up, but the British artist was not impressed.
He added: “She went to someone else and had it done and it looks crap. You can still see the old tattoo underneath it.”
Will Kevin Paul be going into the Celebrity Big Brother house?
It's rumoured Kevin will join the all-star line up for the next series of Celebrity Big Brother, which kicks off later this year.
Kevin has reportedly turned down Channel 5 producers for the last four years.
But they now believe they can get the tattooist to the stars on the summer 2017 series of the show.
A source told the Mirror: “Kevin has been tattooing some of the most famous people in the world for years and counts many of them as friends.
“The CBB team believe his tales of the stars would make him a very popular and interesting housemate.
“His profile is massive at the moment because of his work on Ed – his friendship with arguably the biggest pop star on the planet.
“Producers think he’s perfect.”
What does Kevin Paul think about E4's Tattoo Fixers?
Kevin is also known as an outspoken critic of TV show Tattoo Fixers.
He has criticised the poor quality of the tattooists' work and says he has spent hours covering up shoddy work.
After touching up a skull design by Alice Perrin, he said it "looked like it was drawn by a five year old", and that poor workmanship had caused scarring and 'bleeding out' of the ink beyond the lines of the design.
He has also appeared on Channel 5's Tattoo Disasters, helping to remove some of the worst tattoos in the UK.
What is Kevin Paul's feud with Jemma Lucy?
Kevin blasted Ex On The Beach star Jemma Lucy for being "desperate" and "attention-seeking" after a vicious Twitter row.
He claims that stars like Jemma create a “bad energy” because they would do anything to be on TV.
He told Sun Online: “Jemma just whores herself out for her five minutes of fame, slagging someone off or sticking Botox in her lip and putting it on the internet.
“She’s just that desperate to get back on the telly.
“I had a fallout with her on Twitter because she was slagging someone off and I stepped in to defend them.
“I started that argument thinking she was an a*******, but in the end I just felt sorry for her.
“It really made me stop and think.”
Which celebrity does Kevin regret working with?
Kevin's not afraid to say it like it is and recently admitted he regrets doing a cover-up for X Factor winner James Arthur.
He told the Sun Online: “I had to cover his arms because he let a mate tattoo him in a bedsit before he was famous. They were shockingly bad.
“I regret working with him, I just don’t like him and I wish I’d never worked with him.
“I thought he was rude and ignorant. I would make my way to London from Durham and he’d turn up an hour and half late.
“Once I got all the way to London and he said, ‘Sorry I’m stuck in rehearsal,’ and then he put on Twitter that he had been and picked up a new dog.
“I tattooed his hand and he had it lasered off. I think he’s insecure and getting tattooed doesn’t help.”