'I'm trying to do a tattoo of every British bird'

Charlie Sullivan has been a tattoo artist for 10 years and birds have always been the biggest inspiration for his artwork.

The 31-year-old, who works at the Golden Goose tattoo studio in Birmingham, said he had been drawing since he was a child and had always been obsessed with bird watching.

This love has led him to embark on a challenge to complete tattoos featuring every single bird native to Britain.

So far, he has tattooed 86 different species, from the UK's smallest bird, the goldcrest, to its largest, the white-tailed eagle.

His attempt has racked up thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram.

"It's mental, I've never been this busy with work in my life - I'm doing average three of them a day and I have to fit them around custom work," the tattoo artist from Coventry said.

"Some weeks I have 15 of them booked in, so it's mad."

There is also a charity aspect to the challenge, with money from every tattoo going to the RSPB.

So far, the nature enthusiast has raised £2,070 for the charity.

"With birds and nature being in the crisis they're in, the plight of nature at the minute, [and I] myself profiting off of images of animals, I would like to give something back," he said.

Each customer gets two rolls on a gumball machine which contains designs of different birds.

If they do not want either of the birds they have pulled out, they can pay extra for more rolls, with all of the money for extra rolls going to the RSPB.

Customers then pay a flat rate for the design - all of which are roughly the size of a palm - to be tattooed on their body.

"The fastest I've done took me 40 minutes. That was a pigeon as I've done a lot of tattooes of pigeons," he said.

"The tawny owl took me over two hours."

Sullivan says he is covered in nature tattoos, including one of a golden pheasant and a bittern, remarking: "I've got birds all over me."

However, he hopes that he will be able to tick off his tattoo bucket list by recreating the last native bird on himself.

He hopes it will be a capercaillie, a species which is on the red list in the UK.

"It's just a big goth turkey," he laughed. "Even though it's actually a grouse."

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