'I'm covered in tattoos - and my bloke has none'

Britain's most tattooed woman Becky Holt, 34, and tree surgeon Ben Mason, 23, from Poynton in Cheshire, demonstrate that opposites do attract

- JOSIE COPSON

'Ben and I are like chalk and cheese, in both our looks and our personalities. I’m a real extrovert whereas he’s far more reserved. We get odd looks all the time, but somehow our relationship just works.

When I met Ben in a pub at the start of last year, I was content and confident about my striking appearance – and he sensed that and found it attractive. Ben doesn’t have any tattoos so we’re opposites in that respect, but we connected over our love of family and finding the fun in every situation.

We became best friends, then one evening in December, after a ‘mate date’, everything changed. I went in for a drunken snog and he admitted he’d liked me for a long time, but assumed I didn’t feel the same way. We were both shocked that we’d fallen for someone so different.

Yet everything is so easy with Ben. Instead of trying to change bad boys, which had been my default behaviour, I realised I needed a nice guy – a hard worker with family values.

He loves my tattoos and gives me big hugs, saying how proud he is of me for owning the attention I get. He says I’m his arm candy!

It doesn’t matter that we look so different – our love is bigger than that. He’s considering getting a tattoo though and I’ll ensure he goes to the best artist. A pin-up version of me tattooed on him – that’d be cute. I already have myself on my right arm!

My interest in body art began at the age of 15 when I walked into the local tattoo shop with a specific request – I wanted my first love’s name displayed across my bikini line. Only the boyfriend – whose idea it was – knew about it. I lied about my age to the tattooist, who looked at me like I was an idiot but did as I asked.