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Like many other girls, all Lisa Gordon used to hope for was to marry a smart-looking guy who was dependable and had a steady job.

When she met Keith it seemed her quest for a ­husband was over.

He was ideal – older then her, ­sensible and an ­office worker who had a ­decent dress sense – the ­gentleman she was waiting for.

But 14 years after they tied the knot she struggles to recognise the man she fell in love with. And she can barely stand the sight of him.

Because in the past seven years Keith, 59, has become transformed from Mr Average to one of the most ­tattooed men in the country – ­covered in body art from head to toe.

People stare at him whenever he goes out, which is tough for Lisa.

(Image: Matt Sprake)

She told the Sunday People: “I would never have ­married him if he looked the way he does now. I always wanted a man who appears ­respectable and who the children can look up to.

“Instead I look at him and I think, ‘What have I married?’

“If I could get a magic wand I would wave it and take all the tattoos off. Sometimes I look at his face and try to remember what it used to be like when we met.”

Lisa admits she treasures the ­moments when they are together with the lights out.

“When we’re lying in bed in the dark I don’t see his tattoos.

“I can touch his face and ­remember what he used to look like.

“Sometimes when we’re sleeping, I sing that Rihanna song Monster.

“I feel like I’m sleeping with a monster in my bed.”

(Image: Matt Sprake)

For Keith, an admin worker, his wife’s refusal to ­accept the way he looks is hard to take. He said: “I don’t give a damn about what ­anyone else thinks about me.

“The only thing that does upset me is Lisa not accepting my tattoos. It makes me sad.

“She’s my wife and I do feel like she should support me. I’ve got enough haters.”

Keith’s passion for body art has complex roots.

He has suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder for more than 40 years and claims his tattoos have helped him cope with it.

Long-suffering Lisa has stuck by her man because she can see the ­difference the tattoos have made to his everyday life.

She said: “I don’t like them but I know they make him ­happy. Before, he was depressed and suffered with OCD. He used to make me mad ­doing OCD stuff. Now he’s a lot calmer and happier.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t care, because it makes me sound shallow.

“But I just can’t bring myself to like the way they look.”

(Image: Matt Sprake)

Lisa, originally from the Philippines, can’t help looking back and missing the man she met during her lunch break from a cleaning job in London’s upper-crust Sloane Square in 2001.

She said: “I’d had a bad ­relationship. I realised I ­needed someone different – a bit more ­mature, someone older, who could look after me.

“Keith was totally different from how he is now. He was wearing a shirt and trousers. He looked like a nice, simple guy.”

Lisa was 29 and Keith 46 but ­despite the 16-year age difference she was smitten.

A month after they started dating, Lisa told Keith about her one-year-old daughter Diana Rose back home in the Philippines.

“He was so supportive and I knew I could depend on him.”

And when they married in July 2002 Lisa was five months pregnant with their first child together, Jamie-Lee, now 11.

She said: “It’s so strange when I look at the wedding photos. It’s like I married a different person.

“The personality isn’t different, it’s the same. He’s always been a nice, lovely caring guy who has tried to make me happy.”

The couple, who live in Romford, East London, ­settled into family life and had two more kids, Ricky, nine and Jennifer, six. All four children's names and ­birthdays are tattooed on Keith’s ­fingers.

Lisa said: “Having ­children was an obsession for him. He wanted to start a family. I think it was linked to OCD.”

Recalling the ­background to his ­habit, Lisa said: “Keith was ­always into heavy metal but he didn’t look like someone who was. He went to work looking smart in a suit and tie. When he played his music at home I just went to a ­different part of the house.

“He always had the rock T-shirts but he didn’t really wear them. They stayed in the drawer.” But after their youngest child Jennifer was born in 2008, Keith’s rock side ­came to the fore.

He decided to get a tattoo – a skull on his shoulder.

It was the ­beginning of the end for his straight-laced ­image as he ­became hooked on his inking sessions. Lisa said: “When he told me he wanted it I was shocked and angry. I just didn’t like them.

“I worried about what my family would think.”

But undeterred, Keith has gone on to spend £15,000 on body art in the last seven years. Only his ribs and stomach remain to be covered and his hobby has been costing an average of £130 a month.

(Image: Matt Sprake)

Lisa said: “Now I think it was all part of his obsessive ­behaviour. He’d had ­children and after that he needed something new to focus on.

“When he had his sleeves done it was sort of OK. People didn’t react to that. But when he got his face done I would go out and feel embarrassed.”

What ­puzzled Lisa even more was that Keith had tattoos as a ­teenager – on both arms. But he had them removed when he was 20 as his OCD kicked in. Keith said: “It was a mental health ­issue. I had to have them removed on the NHS and for years I couldn’t stand to even see a tattoo.”

Decades later, and on medication for depression, his impulse to have tattoos roared back.

Today it is not all agony for his wife. As Keith’s tattoos have got him more attention, she admits to feeling the ­occasional ­glimmer of pride. Lisa said: “I used to be embarrassed when we went out but now I ­support him.

“If someone on a bus says, ‘Look at him,’ I will make it clear we are ­together. I don’t hide. I’ve realised that I need to be his wife and be a ­supportive shoulder.”

There are even some benefits.

(Image: Firecracker Films)

Lisa said: “At least he doesn’t look old. Before, he did look older but now he looks younger. My friends can’t believe he’s almost 60. They think he’s 30 or 40.”

“Sometimes Keith will point to an old guy with grey hair and say, ‘Do you want me to look like him?’

“That’s the only time I think he maybe looks better.”

Despite her dislike of his tattoos, the couple are still very much in love.

Keith said: “We’re totally ­incompatible but it works. We don’t like anything the same. I like heavy metal but she likes Engelbert Humperdinck.”

And although she thinks his tattoos are ugly – Lisa still fancies Keith.

She laughed as she said: “Sometimes I don’t understand myself why I’ve stayed... when you look at what I ­married and what he looks like now.

“But we’ve been together 14 years and we do love each other. He only looks like a lunatic, but he’s not.

“He’s attractive to me because he’s my husband.

“He may be a monster but he’s my monster.”