An artist in China has showcased his painting skills to members of the public yesterday in eastern China.

Han Xiaoming, 27, painted using his tongue instead of using a traditional Chinese brush.

He dipped his tongue in the ink and licked the paper before then twisting and tilting his tongue to form strokes.

Han Xiaoming (pictured) demonstrated how to use his tongue to paint on paper yesterday in Zhejiang, China

Han spent 20 minutes and completed his work, named as 'The Black Peony'

Han told MailOnline that he finished the painting in around 20 minutes.

The painting is named 'The Black Peony', with black ink as the main colour with subtle hints of yellow and blue.

'She Hua' meaning 'tongue painting', is a unique art skill that has been passed on for years in Han's family.

Han, from Lanxi city, Zhejiang Province, said in the interview that the skill of tongue painting has almost disappeared in China.

His great-grandfather started tongue painting when he was small and Han is now the fourth generation in the family honing the skill.

Han said his great-grandfather started 'tongue painting' and he is the fourth heir in the family

Yellow ink is made out of realgar, an arsenic sulfide mineral, to create the yellow colour

The ink is harmful to the human body, as Han uses materials such as black ink and realgar, an arsenic sulfide mineral.

The ink can only be removed using white wine, but it is a long process to wash them off completely.

'The ink can make my throat hurt and it will upset my stomach if I swallow a bit by accident,' Han said.

Therefore, Han only paints using his tongue on rare occasions.

The self-employed artist mostly makes dough figurines and also does sugar painting, a traditional folk art using hot liquid sugar to create figures.

The 27-year-old artist said the ink can cause pain in his throat and stomach if he swallows

The ink stains on his tongue and can only be removed by white wine, Han told MailOnline

Art gallery buyers approached to Han in 2007 and offered 200,000 to 300,000 yuan (£22k - £34k) for his 'tongue paintings', but he refused.

'An art professor contacted me yesterday and asked if I can teach the students but I turned down the offer,' said Han.

He explained that tongue painting is too dangerous to learn and it is not recommended to teach to a large group of students.

Although Han wants to keep this Chinese tradition as a pride for his family, web users on Chinese social media did not appreciate much of Han's performance.

'QY' said: 'It's not a big deal really. The story would be much more encouraging if he lost his hands and learn to paint using his tongue.'

Another user 'Boreas' did not see his paintings beautiful as 'he did not have much talent in drawing'.

'Eww! now the painting is full of saliva, and it stinks!' said one user.