Britain's most tattooed man turned away from polling station

Britain’s most tattooed man was turned away from his local polling station yesterday.

Mathew Whelan changed his name by deed poll to King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite.

But officials said he failed to register the new name with them.

The 35-year-old, from Bordesley Green East in Stechford in Birmingham, who is known as Body Art for short, was turned away at the Stechford Primary School polling station.

He changed his name in 2007 and said he had voted under his new name in the 2010 General Election.

And he claimed that he returned information sent out to him by Birmingham City Council back in November.

Body Art, a Lib Dem activist, has spent more than £25,000 covering 90 per cent of his skin in tattoos, including the whites of his eyeballs. Last year he revealed that he couldn’t get his passport renewed because of his new unusual name.

A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “We sent a household reminder to him in November, asking to confirm details of who lived there, which he returned.