He spends up to six hours a day tattoing, and said that recently, around two thirds of his customers have been women.

"I think it's a girl power thing," he said. "Twenty years ago it was a certain kind of woman who had tattoos, but these days it can be anyone. We had a lady in her 60s who came in to get a small flower in memory of her dog, for example.

"And a while back now we had a woman come in for a Christian fish with 'Cliff Richard' around it."

But it seems that tattoo-ees are a varied bunch – Dava, pictured, also has a judge on his books, who has full "sleeve" tattoos on his arm, ending just above his wrist.

The 38-year-old started coming to English Rose in 1989, and would spend his army wages on tattoos. "I knew a couple of blokes with tattooes, and thought it was a good image, he said.

"The work on my body probably took around 300 hours all in all, and would have cost £13,000 if I'd paid for it all."

Dava has worked at the salon full-time since 1996, and said that anyone starting out has to make a lot of sacrifices.

He said: "You have to concentrate 100 per cent when you're doing a tattoo – you can't make any mistakes, you can't spell anyone's name incorrectly. I've known someone who spelt 'England' 'Elgland' before, and you really don't want that happening.

"While your friends might be out drinking on a Friday night, you have to stay in because you've got work in the morning and the last thing you want is to go to work with shaky hands and a hangover."

Having said that, Dava loves his job, and always looks forward to going to work in the morning.

"I get a real buzz when I get up on Saturday morning, he said. "Because I know that there'll be a long line of customers waiting for us.

"Some people think that people with a lot of tattoos are thugs, but that's not the case. The worst problems I have are when I'm trying to get through customs – the officials there always suspect people with tattoos.

"But that's just something you have to deal with when you look a little bit different – when you're an individual.

"I like looking the way that I do, and when I go home I feel a great sense of job satisfaction.

"It's good to leave your mark on the world."

Maria's tattoos have helped her gain control over her body

A BUNGLED labour led to health

problems for Maria Wheeler, pictured, and she used tattoos to help her gain control over her body.

"Giving birth to my first child was mismanaged, basically," she said. "I was left with bad health problems – rectal vaginal fistula, which is common, but only in developing countries.

"I settled with the health authority out of court, but I wanted a way to get control over my body and how I felt, and tattoos were the way for me to do that."

Maria now has several tattoos, and said that the closer you get to the bone, the more it hurts.