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A 65-year-old tattoo-obsessed father says he has spent thousands of dollars painting every inch of his body in a bid to cover up his aging skin. Ray Houghton, from Manchester, says he spent 264 hours in 32 sessions getting tattooed.

The gym goer who has left almost no stone unturned on his tattoo journey says he gets requests from men to see his private parts “all the time.” Ray says that he got his first tattoos of it when he was a teenager and a member of the Royal Artillery.

His obsession with tattoos began when he decided to cover eight ’embarrassing’ tattoos and has been under the microscope ever since.

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Speaking about his full body quest and messages from curious fans, the father-of-one said: “I wanted to do it for a while but my regular tattoo artist wouldn’t do it so I had to find another one.”

“Now I get a lot of messages on social media from men asking to see my penis tattooed all the time. It’s always men, never women.”

“I send it like it’s on the Internet anyway.” Ray says the excessive tattoos are to cover up varicose veins and wrinkles that come with aging, something he’s not a fan of.

Talking about the procedure to get his private parts tattooed in 2018 and his reasoning, Ray said: “I don’t feel the pain anymore, but the tattoo artist couldn’t believe I wanted to tattoo such a sensitive area.”

“There was quite a bit of blood and it was uncomfortable to walk the next day. I was so desperate to do it. I didn’t like looking in the mirror and seeing my aging skin. I like looking young.”

“I hated seeing varicose veins and wrinkles. It’s horrible.

“We used a roller because it was the easiest way to do the tattoo. You can’t just do it on a bench or work table.”

“It was pretty weird at first, but it made a lot of sense. It really worked out perfectly.”

Ray, who now lives in Spain and runs a gym in Alicante, was crowned North West Coast Bodybuilding Champion in 1989. His face, hands, feet and even his behind are covered in Maori-inspired designs.

He joined the Royal Artillery in his teens and had tattoos on his arms and legs in a caravan near the base of a man named “Sailor Bill”. But the eight inks, including a ship, the words “mom” and “dad”, a naked woman and a geisha, were not to Ray’s taste and he wanted to cover them up.

He also had to modify the designs on his abs, as they initially didn’t fit with the rest of his tattoos. Ray said, “I also had my crunches modified as the first time I had them done I wasn’t expecting them to do my full body so it didn’t match the pattern.”

Since completing his new look, Ray says he gets “stopped for autographs” when walking his dog. He said: “Everybody loves the designs.

“When I’m out for a walk with my dog, people stop me and want autographs, it’s amazing. People want to take pictures of me too. How many people my age get stopped for a photo with them? Probably not many.”

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