My Ed Sheeran feud, wild nights with Harry Styles & star who was ‘spoilt w****r’… celeb tattooist Kevin Paul reveals all

HIS famous clients have included Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Rihanna, and now tattoo artist Kevin Paul is lifting the lid on his life inking the stars – and setting the record straight about his “feud” with the Shape of You hitmaker. Kevin, who first got into tattooing when he was just 12, has an A-list celebrity client list, but his work on more than 40 of Ed Sheeran’s tattoos has attracted controversy – particularly after Kevin himself dubbed the singer’s designs “s**t”. Tattoo Artist Kevin Paul has dished the dirt on his celebrity client base Credit: Glen Minikin – The Sun Kevin has inked dozens of Ed Sheeran’s famous tattoos, including the lion on his chest, but the artist has revealed they are no longer on speaking terms Credit: Instagram Ed’s colourful body work includes a huge lion on his chest, a cartoon penguin of Pingu and the Heinz Ketchup label. Today Derby-based Kevin, 48, tells The Sun what it was like working with the pop star, who he first met at the Brit Awards in 2012. He said: “Ed once said to me, ‘Being a pop star, you take drugs, drink or get tattoos – so I got tattoos.’ He had bad ideas. That lion on his chest was a massive story.” The gaudy tattoo of the big feline attracted much amusement when it was first revealed in 2015, with Kevin admitting “it took over the internet”. For years they had a close friendship, with Kevin inking more than 40 of Ed’s colourful tattoos. But Kevin admits that the two have now grown apart and are no longer on speaking terms. He said: “His manager told me he wasn’t happy working with me, because Ed had a tattooist in his family. “So he’d go to them for the crappy stuff and get bits done and then come to me for the proper ones. “I started to feel used, so I needed distance from him.” It wasn’t the only reason why Kevin stepped back from the friendship, he claims. He also said he felt unsupported by Ed’s team with work projects. “Whoever I talked to about a project, they always wanted Ed involved,” Kevin said. “I wanted to do documentaries on knife crime, and I was always pushing, and pitching myself, but everything went back to Ed Sheeran – they always wanted him. “In 2018 I got an email from a guy in Hollywood and he was a TV producer, looking at an idea of creating a show about me, he’d pitched the idea and put the idea together, it was forming quite well. “I got emails from him about doing my own show, they even flew me to Hollywood, all getting to the final stages and working with people like Fred Durst, Marilyn Manson, loads of big Hollywood names, and Vern Troyer, Mini Me. “Right at the final stages – I was going to get £400,000 per series – they wanted Ed Sheeran to be a co-producer and by that they wanted his name on the show. “He didn’t have to do anything for it, just a name as a co-producer. His team said no, he wouldn’t be interested. “So I lost my own show in Hollywood working with big A-listers which would’ve led to other things, all because Ed’s manager wouldn’t allow his name to be on it. This is why I wanted to distance myself from Ed.” Kevin and Ed were once so close that they regularly partied together Credit: Supplied The Shape of You hitmaker, who is worth £400m, has had over 60 tattoos Credit: Splash News Kevin claims that he tried to make amends with the £400m chart-topper, who married Cherry Seaborn in 2019. The tattooist, who has over 13,000 followers on Instagram, claims he contacted him when Ed’s eldest daughter Lyra was born in 2020. He said: “Another celebrity told me the importance of a handwritten letter. “So after he had his first child, I got them a present, some painting stuff, and delivered a letter, saying, ‘I love you as a friend but I don’t wanna tattoo you anymore, find another tattooist.’ “So we stopped working with each other publicly. Ed never replied. I don’t know if he got a*sey. I delivered it to his mum’s house.” Ed isn’t the only famous singer that Kevin has worked with. He also inked some of One Direction superstar Harry Styles’ most famous tattoos. Describing their first encounter, he said: “I met Harry through Ed Sheeran. I got a drunken text message from Ed at 3am on a Saturday night asking if they could get tattooed in the morning. So at 5am I got up and made my way to London. “I was getting texts off his mate Harry, and I didn’t know who it was. I get to this grotty flat. “Ed wasn’t there. Harry was just a nervous young boy. This was when he was at the height of 1D fame. “Now, I’d worked at X Factor for a few years, and I knew it was a head f***. One minute they’re working at Sainsbury’s, the next they’re famous.” “I used to guide them through it, like with money, cos they were earnings thousands for personal appearances back then.” “I tried to encourage them to save it and not blow it, cos it didn’t last, but Harry was a different thing altogether – he had way more money. “The tattoo he got was a 17BLACK on his collar bone because he once blew 100 grand betting on the black in Vegas, in one bet, so it was to remind him not to make those kind of mistakes again. Kevin first met Harry Styles during the early days of One Direction Credit: Supplied The former One Direction singer is known for his bizarre collections of tattoos, including his 17BLACK tattoo, which Kevin penned Credit: Splash News “The second thing I did was a Pingu painting, which is what they’d mentioned in the drunken phone call, because it was his favourite cartoon, and Ed’s. Ed has a picture and Harry has the word.” “Harry and Ed tattooed each other. I taught Ed to do it, he did me, he could do it, the basics, but he didn’t really listen. “Harry wanted a lock on his wrist, Ed did it – people thought it was a handbag. “But I liked Harry, I could’ve guided him, being a celebrity is toxic, all the managers around them, they just care about getting paid. “His security once told me they all called them the 1D pension scheme – everyone was gonna be rich off the back of these lads. “I got a sad vibe off him, I could’ve helped him. We spoke about a lot of future tattoos, but then he distanced himself from me because he thought I sold stories about him, after an interview where they twisted my words, but we left on a high.” Kevin doesn’t hold back when it comes to the stars that he has not enjoyed working with. He tells me: “I tattooed a couple of people from Made in Chelsea, I tattooed Oliver Proudlock and Jamie Laing. I did Proudlock quite a few times. “Jamie asked me to do a black silhouette of Peter Pan on the inside of his arm and I told him it was a silly idea, but he was desperate, like a big kid.” Kevin reveals that he did not enjoy how Jamie Laing acted after he inked a Peter Pan tattoo on the Made in Chelsea star Credit: Alamy Kevin was so incensed by Jamie Laing that he branded him a ‘spoilt w****r’ Credit: Instagram “I said think about it, and I gave him a month. He was texting me a lot, can we do it, can we do it. So I went down and did it. Later that day he was filming MIC and I got told by MIC – by other cast members – that he was slagging it off, saying it’s not great.” “Basically people were taking the p**s out of him and instead of taking the blame for picking it he tried to blame me.” Proud tattoo artist Kevin felt it was a blow to hear such criticism and dedicated to confront the Made in Chelsea cast member, he says. “I had a word with him, and he says, ‘Mate it’s all good, I love the tattoo’.” “Channel 4 told me to b*tch about it and slag it off. Then I heard him on the radio telling Grimmy he got the tattoo from a dodgy guy!” “Jamie is a spoilt w****r. I ended up being on MIC in a scene with him and he was s***ting himself, shy and apologising.”