Free Pokemon tattoos...go!

Johny Matthews, of The Lost Boys Tattoo Studio, in Rotherham, created 17 tattoos earlier this month - all completely free - and raised hundreds of pounds for charity, as part of celebrations to mark his tattoo studio’s third anniversary.

Johny decided to host the free tattoo day, on August 1, after seeing the hype created by the new Pokemon Go app.

“I loved Pokemon the first time around, in 1998,” said Johny, aged 29, who is planning to have an entire sleeve of Pokemon ink done himself later this year.

“And I’ve been having a great time with the app since it came out, I’ve been all over hunting those little guys. So I thought, to mark three years since I opened, I would offer free palm-sized Pokemon tattoos to my customers, and just ask them for a donation to charity.

“I started at 6.30am on that morning and there was a queue of people right out the door. I worked until 10.30pm that night and didn’t come close to getting everybody done. Luckily, many of the people who showed up appreciated what I was doing and have since booked in to have their Pokemon tattoos done at a regular session.”

Johny inked the colourful characters on people’s stomachs, arms, ankles and even a kneecap, and was thrilled to have raised over £300 for Cancer Research UK.

He added: “Each tattoo took between 30 and 60 minutes and I had my apprentices cleaning everything down as we went, so we could get through as many people as possible. It was a great day - and fun to put a few more Pokemon into the world.”