Tattoos might not be everyone’s cup of tea but they are if you are this man.

Andrew Blamires, nicknamed Tetley, is such a big fan of the Tetley teafolk that he has had two of them tattooed on his arm.

And now he is about to have another picture on his back depicting all seven of the flat-capped crew.

“It’s going to be a work of art,” says the 50-year-old grandad, of Scholes, Cleckheaton.

He has come up with the design himself showing the teafolk stood in front of a medieval castle.

The two turrets are going to be a teapot and then a cup and saucer with a spoon for the flag.

“People might think I’m mad but it’s my back and it’s my skin. It’s body art,” added Mr Blamires whose first tattoo 18 years ago was a love heart with his wife’s name Janet.

Since then he has had a cigarette lighter with a flame coming out of it, tattooed on one arm, one of the Tetley folk sitting on a doorstep enjoying a brew and another of the Tetley men standing with a CB radio and aerial in his hand.

Mr Blamires says he is a big tea drinker averaging eight or nine cuppas a day but says it was his sister who gave him his nickname when he was nine.

He said: “We were playing with the CB radio at home one day and I didn’t have a call sign. Suddenly the Tetley advert came on TV and she said that’s it, call yourself Tetley and it’s stuck ever since. Everyone calls me it now.”

Work on the tattoo for his back is about to start soon. It will cost hundreds of pounds and, depending on his pain threshold, it might have to be done in two sittings.

“It’ll take the artist half-an-hour to shave my back before he can even get started.”

Anand Gandesha, Marketing Manager for Tetley Tea, said; “We have some major tea fans working here at Tetley but certainly no one who is willing to tattoo themselves in honour of the Tea Folk.

"Andrew, or “Mr. Tetley” as he likes to be known, is quite simply one of Britain’s undisputed tea fans who has gone the extra mile to show that his admiration of the Tea Folk is definitely skin deep!"

The tea company will also be sending him a large supply of teabags and a goody bag.

  • Read the full story in Tuesday's T&A