10 things you possibly didn’t know about body art

1. There is no legal limit in the UK on the age at which you can be pierced. Under the age of 12 you require your parents’ consent.

2. Like many professional piercers, Ed refuses to pierce anybody under the age of 16.

3. Places to pierce: ear, eyebrow, nose, cheek, lip, finger-webbing, foot-webbing, nipple, naval, places where the sun don’t shine.

4. Ears are the most commonly pierced part of the body. In the Western world, pierced ears can be traced back as far as ancient Greece in the 4th Century B.C.

5. Nipple piercing in the Western world can be traced back to the Roman Empire. Back then, Roman soldiers had their nipples pierced as a sign of manliness and bravery.

6. It’s widely believed that Madonna is responsible for popularising naval piercing. She first started flashing her belly ring in the mid-‘80’s.

7. On the same note, we can blame the popularity of eyebrow rings on Jason Orange of sartorial trend-setting, no-tune merchants ‘Take That’. Although apparently ‘whatever he said, whatever he did, he didn’t mean it…’

8. Ed himself has over 40 different piercings all over his body. He tries to avoid airports and magnet factories.

9. Being pierced hurts. But it’s illegal to inject a local anaesthetic without a doctor being present.

10.Sober Fact: a recent study carried out by the Bury and Rochdale Health authority in Lancashire found that 95% of GPs have seen people with medical complications as a result of visiting cowboy piercers.