Holly Aston woke up with the penis tattoo on her shoulder (Picture: Endemol)

A former wild child has spoken of her horror of living with the most embarrassing tattoo in Britain – a penis on her shoulder.

Holly Aston, 20, woke up after a drunken party to discover the obscenity inked on her body.

And the student says it has ruined her life.

She even hid the tattoo from her parents for two years until the awful truth came out last year.


Holly was just 17 when she allowed drunk friends to draw the penis on her shoulder with a DIY tattoo gun she had bought on the internet.

She woke up the next day horrified by the graphic image permanently etched on her body.



MORE: Taxpayer funded wedding for couple who say they are ‘too fat to work’

The animal management student even turned down a family holiday to Lanzarote because she feared the obscene tattoo would be revealed.

But the self-confessed former ‘wild child’ from Druids Heath, Birmingham, says she has grown up and now wants to move on with her life.

The part-time shop assistant said: ‘I had my first tattoo done by a qualified bloke who had turned part of his house into a studio.

‘I had a large picture done on my forearm of a comic book woman. It’s supposed to be Storm from the X Men, although I just chose it out of a book because I thought it was cool. My family hated it but I still went on to get more.

Holly and her mother Patricia (Picture: Endemol)

‘It was so easy to buy a tattoo gun off the internet for about £50. You get the full kit of needles and ink and it’s easy to operate, though they give you no instructions about keeping it sterile.

‘We were very lucky not to get an infection or blood poisoning.

‘I had tattoo parties with my mates. We’d have some drinks and tattoo each other – it was stupid.

‘I let my mates draw whatever they wanted.

‘I have the word ‘Dyke’ on my ankle, and then one drew the penis on my shoulder.

‘I knew what they were doing and didn’t mind at the time. It was just a joke and I thought it was funny.

‘But then I woke up the next day, looked at it and thought ‘Oh God, what have I done?’.

‘The joke was over and it really wasn’t funny anymore.

MORE: Man with one eye tattooed completely black is jailed for shooting a police officer while on heroin

‘I had to keep it covered up in the summer; if I went swimming I tried to cover it with plasters because I didn’t want children seeing it.

‘I turned down family holidays because I was hiding it from my mum and dad. I thought they’d kill me.

‘I want to go to university this year and to be taken seriously without this silly tattoo, but I can’t afford the thousands of pounds it would cost to remove it.’

But the good news is that the tattoo is on the way out.

MORE: Musician nearly blinds himself by tattooing his eyes completely black

Holly appears in the Channel 4 series Bodyshockers: Nips, Tucks and Tattoos tomorrow night at 10pm. In it, Katie Piper, who battled back from an horrific acid attack, explores the world of weird tattoos, piercings and plastic surgery.



It was former model Katie, in fact, who helped break the news of the tattoo to her horrified family.

‘At first I didn’t want to embarrass myself on telly but then I thought they would be able to help me.

‘Katie came to Birmingham and was so nice. I thought she would look at me and think ‘What an idiot’ but she saw the funny side.

‘She helped me tell my parents, who reacted better than I thought they would. I thought they’d be really angry but my mum Patricia was more disappointed that I hadn’t told her about it.

‘The TV production company has paid to get my three main tattoos – on my forearm, ankle and shoulder – removed by laser in Harley Street.

‘I’ve just had my fifth session and they are nearly gone. I feel like I can start afresh now.’

MORE: 18 signs you’re not a real adult yet