Meet Bramley-born tattooist Kevin Paul who is returning to Leeds having inked the likes of Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Dappy

Kevin was born in Leeds and some of his earliest memories are from his time living in Bramley, where he collected glasses at The Old Unicorn pub. His journey since has been a winding one, but one that catapulted him into the glamorous world of fame and celebrity.

His road to mingling with stars began after a particularly difficult chapter of his life, during which he got divorced and lost his house and savings. Kevin met a new partner and she fell pregnant, making Kevin determined to make back the money had lost.

He said: "I remember watching N-Dubz was on telly and Dappy had a tattoo I thought was rubbish. I said to my missus ‘I could do better than that, I could do a lot better than that’.”

The plan he put in place soon came together and before long, he was tattooing hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. As his contact book grew, as did demand for his services before work with Ed Sheeran planted the seed for a meteoric rise.

He said: “Me and and Ed had a really good friendship. As his career grew, mine grew with it. I was with him one day at a party and Harry Styles popped up and I had a chat with him and ended up being really good friends with him. This was when he was in One Direction. Off the back of that, I was a global name overnight. Within an hour of me leaving his house, it was everywhere. I couldn’t use my phone for three days.”

Kevin was rapidly becoming a word of mouth phenomenon as global stars learnt of the work he had done for other A-listers. He said: "It was a case of ‘this guy’s done a tattoo on that guy’. After I did Harry Styles, I think it was someone in LA that printed ‘this is the celebrity tattooist’.”

He has also toured with the likes of Rihanna and Lady Gaga, and has also given tattoos to N-Dubz star Dappy and members of pop bands JLS and Union J. He also wrote a book about his life titled ‘A Sketchy Life’, which was released in 2015.

Aside from rubbing shoulders with celebrities, Kevin became the first ever UK tattooist to ink someone inside a hospital, after the terrorist attack in Manchester in 2017. Martin Hibbert was seriously injured after a bomb was detonated at Manchester Arena and was given a tattoo to commemorate his survival by Kevin.

Having ascended to the very top of the tattooing world, Kevin is now returning to his roots. He is set to begin working as a guest tattooist at Urban Ink in Burley and his plan is to work there two days a week and focus on “great works of art” as opposed to simple designs. A specialist in horror-style designs, Kevin wants to bring the talent he has used to tattoo global stars to ink the people of the city he was born in. His work may have taken him across the globe, but Kevin’s heart remains in Leeds.

He said: “I just love Leeds. I think it’s got a lovely vibe, most people here are generally quite happy people and I have good memories of it. My dad lived and died there, all his life. My dad’s mate used to run The Old Unicorn so a lot of my youth growing up was in there every night. I used to collect glasses there and everything.”

Such is the extent of Kevin’s love for Leeds, he will only eat fish and chips at Midgleys on Upper Town Street in Bramley. He said: “We love that place. Every single time we come up, we’ll always go there for fish and chips.”

Urban Ink can be contacted via their official website.