Ed Sheeran already has an impressive collection of tattoos. The 25-year-old has 60 multi-coloured inkings in total - as seen in the music video for his new single Shape of You. And according to his tattoo artist Kevin Paul - who has also inked the likes of Rihanna and Harry Styles - the singer is planning to get another 30 on his back, despite having spent 40 hours in the tattooist's chair in the past 12 months.
"We've spent about 40 hours on Ed over the past year, and keeping it a secret was probably the hardest bit," Kevin told MailOnline. "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."
Ed Sheeran has an impressive collection of 60 tattoos
Ed's lion tattoo (England football team's logo) caused a stir in 2015. The British songwriter had it made to commemorate his sell-out Wembley gigs - which saw him play to over 290,000 in London. Clearly a huge fan of body art, the star also has impressive sleeves - which are dedicated to his music - and the word 'Red' tattooed on his arm in recognition of friend Taylor Swift album Red, which which he collaborated on with her.
But, of course, there's no gain without pain. "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," Paul added. "It wasn’t an ideal situation."