Politics: You Won’t Believe these Tory Tattoos

The news that a young man has had his body inked with the word “Moggmentum” may seem like a one-off oddity but a wealth of Tory tattoos have already been etched on people for posterity. We’re not talking about St George-style crusader knights or roaring English lions but portraits and references to actual politicians that have been embedded in some unlikely fans

Moggmentum

Jacob Rees-Mogg rose to Instagram fame after posing for a photo in front of a tattoo parlour with Labour party posters in its windows. “We shall have to take our business elsewhere,” was the caption added by the Tory backbencher.

Often labelled “The Honourable Member for the 19th Century”, Rees-Mogg is perhaps the least likely person in Britain to go for a modern tattoo but 24-year-old Ross Atkinson has taken him as his inspiration.

Atkinson recently decided to have his chest inked with the word “Moggmentum”, which has encapsulated a tongue-in-cheek grassroots campaign urging Rees-Mogg to run for Conservative leader. The politician responded that he was flattered and joked that Atkinson had better not become a socialist later in life.

Boris Johnson

Boris was still London Mayor when a 19-year-old chef from Chorley in Lancashire decided to spend £180 having the future Foreign Secretary’s face tattooed on his thigh.

Lewis Jolly said he wanted to make a patriotic gesture other than the common symbols of St George. Johnson and St George are both of Turkish descent but there the similarities end. Johnson commented that he was honoured by the gesture and it was a sight for sore “thighs”.

Margaret Thatcher

Shortly after her 2013 death the Iron Lady was recreated with a steel needle on the leg of Louis Maier, 32, from her hometown of Grantham in Lincolnshire.

The tribute features her as an ice cream, as the Bishop of London had claimed in his funeral address that Thatcher, a food scientist before she entered politics, was “part of the team that invented Mr Whippy ice-cream”.

It was later pointed out that Mr Whippy had been invented a decade earlier in the US, and there is little detail about her work with food.

Left-wing critics pointed out that softened ice cream lowered the product’s quality while greatly increasing profits.

Nigel Farage

Farage left the Conservative Party in 1992 in protest at John Major’s signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which confirmed the key pillars of the European Union.

Little did he know that he would meet Kerrie Webb, 38, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire who had her arm adorned with the then-UKIP leader’s face in 2015.

She revealed the tribute to the man himself at the party’s annual conference that year. “What on earth posseseed you to do this to yourself? This is astonishing,” he said. “We’ve got on the fourth floor the Lazarus Suite which is my sort of room, away from all the press if you want to come up in about half an hour and say hello.”

Brexit Tattoos

“It’s your choice but it’s permanent” was the slogan of the pro-EU group We Are Europe, which opened a popup tattoo parlour on Berwick St in London to reach out to young people on the final day before the referendum.

Despite the obvious satire of the venture some passers-by couldn’t resist some of the designs, which were offered for free.

Comedian Eddie Izzard visited the parlour and tweeted “Free Brexit tattoos offered today in Soho. Highlighting the permanence of your vote in the #EURef tomorrow.”

 

by Stewart Vickers,

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