Ed Sheeran stunned fans when he revealed that he had got a huge lion tattoo on his chest earlier this month, but he claims it was all an elaborate joke. The Thinking Out Loud singer shared an image of his ink-free chest on Wednesday, much to the relief of many of his followers.
"Was only joking about the lion," Ed wrote.
The 24-year-old originally shared a photo of himself with a colourful inking in the centre of his chest two weeks ago, telling the BBC that he had wanted to mark his achievement of selling out three nights at Wembley Stadium. Ed joked that he had originally planned to get the stadium's floor plan inked but changed his mind at the last minute to have a lion tattoo as it is the logo of the England football team.
Ed Sheeran said he was only joking about getting a lion tattoo
"Lion is courtesy of @kp_est78, who puts up with me complaining about the pain," he tweeted.
Ed even got his tattoo artist Kevin Paul on the joke, with the tattooist telling E! News: "The piece as it stands took about six hours to do but there is still about six hours left to complete the tattoo."
While it appears this ink is a fake, Ed is no stranger to quirky tattoos and is known to have both a ketchup bottle and a teacup permanently etched onto his skin. The singer also has the word Red tattooed on his arm to celebrate his work on Taylor Swift's album and tour of the same name.
The singer stunned fans with this photo two weeks ago
Ed's shocking tattoo is not the only reason the musician has got people talking this month; he also sparked romance rumours with Nicole Scherzinger after one of his close friends claimed that the pair were in the "early stages" of dating.
Ed's friend told The Sun: "As far as he's concerned they were in the early stages of dating and he's been open about it with close friends and colleagues. It may not develop beyond those dates, but they're definitely tight."