“Britain’s most tattooed man” wants to remove his implants but claims legal restrictions are standing in his way.
King Of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite – who is formerly known as Mathew Whelan – has spent 1,600 hours under the needle.
The 45-year-old from Birmingham also has three implants, including a skull in his chest.
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Now, he wants to remove all foreign bodies from under his skin to create a “blank slate”.
But it is apparently proving a difficult task.
Currently, non-medical professionals in the UK are not able to get a license to perform body modifications; only those with a surgical license are legally able to do this.
King Of Ink Land says his only choice is to seek out the procedure on the NHS, which he doesn’t want to do, as he says the service is already “bursting”.
He is urging Labour Health Secretary, Wesley Streeting, to review the law.
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The Brummie believes that there should be a license for those wishing to carry out body modifications, similar to a tattoo and piercing one, which grants them legal rights for these procedures.
“I have to find a person willing to break the law if I want to have items removed from under my skin,” the actor told What’s The Jam.
“I’d rather have them out in my 40s, than later in my 50s or 60s – if I’m still alive – when health risks would be greater.
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“My body image and health is restricted by the courts, which could force me to go to the NHS.
“I don’t want to burden this very vital service with something that was my own choice.
“I’m happy to pay for it, but anyone who took this on would be breaking multiple laws – and would likely face jail time.
“The new Labour Health Secretary should review laws around what people can consent to and who, outside the medical circle, could undertake procedures.
“Similar to how regulations like piercing and tattoo laws came about, as it means many individuals like myself are in a limbo.
“No private surgeries are willing to work on this kind of thing, and it’s making body modders like me out to be somewhat of a subculture of people – it’s making us feel like we’re not seen as humans.
“All I’m asking for this Christmas is for the government to make amending my body legal.”
Last year, King Of Ink Land had a consultation with a plastic surgeon specialist after two of his modifications started to rot.
As he was at risk of amputation, the case was deemed a medical necessity and he was able to get them removed through the NHS.
But King Of Ink Land doesn’t want to put more pressure on the UK’s already buckling public health system.
Earlier this year, he spoke with his GP about how he could go about getting a private surgeon to carry out the other removals at a cost – which he is more than happy to pay.
Unfortunately, due to the current law, he offered a referral to the NHS instead.
He said: “Most people who are body modification practitioners don’t have a surgical license, which is part of the bigger problem.
“Take eyeball tattooing for example; you can’t ring up your optician because it’s not regulated.
“We need access to surgeons who can legally do some procedures or corrections.
“If I want these removed, I could either do it illegally, or get a referral and be on a waiting list for goodness knows how long.”
King Of Ink Land paid £3,000 for his implants, which were put in his body by unlawful surgeon, Brendan ‘Dr Evil’ McCarthy.
In 2019, McCarthy was sentenced to three years and four months in jail on three accounts of grievous bodily harm after consensually removing an ear and a nipple on two other body modders [not King Of Ink Land].
The courts found him guilty on the basis that he didn’t hold a valid license to carry out these modifications and on the Offence Against Persons Act 1861.
Dr Samantha Pegg, a law lecturer at Nottingham Trent University and expert on the legality of body modification procedures, told the BBC: “Practitioners have assumed that extreme body modifications, as forms of body adornment, were lawful when consent was given.
“Although the law has long accepted that tattooing and piercing are lawful activities there has not – until this case – been any consideration of other forms of body modification such as tongue splitting.”
Due to current restrictions, King Of Ink Land plans to get his body modifications removed abroad if he unable to do so in the UK.
He added: “It’s going to set back my goal to go into higher education, as I was looking at studying law once my mortgage had been completed – but I think going abroad to get this done is going to cost all I’ve got.
“It is complicated, as it’s not something common.
“I don’t know if going abroad is an option, as I’m worried about how close to serious parts of my body the implants are.
“People who get body modifications think they will last forever, but that’s not the case.
“There are serious risks along the way, too.
“If there is a licensed surgeon out there that would be willing to slice into my head and chest to extract these implants, then please get in touch.”
