Tattooist Kevin Paul, who has inked big names such as Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran, has joined the list of critics of E4 reality show ‘Tattoo Fixers’. Paul told The Mirror he was originally approached to be involved in the show, but decided not to and has now called out the series branding it ‘an absolute joke’.

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"When that show first started getting made, they approached me in the first place to go on. I started to work with them and went for meetings with them. I even tried to help them find venues to set up the shop,” Paul said.

"They were saying it was going to be this great big show and wanted to show all the positive sides of tattooing. I was all for that but as time went on, the things they were saying didn't really make sense. What they were saying was different to the facts I was being shown.”

Alongside tattooing big name clients, Paul also appeared on Channel 5 show ‘Tattoo Disasters’ and has 24 years experience in the business. Speaking about the artists who feature on the show, Paul said: “I looked at their work and it's really poor.”

“One has been tattooing for three years. I train people for five years before I pass them as a professional tattooist. He doesn't know what he's doing. He can't even do a tattoo let alone a cover up.”

"Tattoo Fixers is an absolute joke. I worked for years on tattoo shows promoting it [tattooing] in a good light, and good tattooists won't have anything to do with TV because s*** like this keeps happening.”

Paul also questioned the show’s hygiene levels. “I know that they don’t cover their machines when they’re being used to stop the spread of blood-borne diseases,” he said. "When their machines are uncovered it’s unprotected so somebody else’s dry blood is going to be on it."

However a spokesperson from the show has denied Paul’s claims, calling them "categorically untrue”. "Over a million people regularly enjoy the show and we refute any suggestion that the conditions on Tattoo Fixers is 'unsafe and unsanitary' as it is categorically untrue,” they said.

"The tattoo artists on the show are all professionals and we have all the necessary health and safety documentation. We reiterate that we take health and safety as well as duty of care of our contributors as of paramount importance.”

The show has also been criticised by former participant Daniel Head, in a public Facebook post describing his experiences when he went in for a cover-up. “One year on and my tattoo looks at least 10 years old,” Head wrote.

Head also accused the show’s producers of not caring about the participants, saying that ‘their only concern is getting the tattoos finished and getting their end product for TV.’

“I'm booking in with a tattoo artist now who's going to have a look at it and will hopefully attempt to fix it,” he added. “Otherwise it's going to be hours of laser removal.”