Most tattooed man fails in application for passport

King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite, 34, has been refused an ID renewal because of his unusual moniker, which he adopted by deed poll four years ago.The Lib Dem activist from Birmingham, formerly known as Mathew Whelan - now called Body Art for short – says it breaches his human rights to demand that he uses his birth name on his passport.Body Art, who has covered 90 per cent of his body in ink, including tattooing his left eyeball black, has spent more than £25,000 on his passion.Now, he has been offered work abroad to turn his hobby into a job, and so applied to have his passport renewed.But despite filling out the forms and sending the £72.50 fee, he received a letter this week telling him the application had been rejected because of his new name.The 34-year-old has changed his name twice, in 2007 and 2009, and his new moniker appears on his driving licence.He said: ‘I applied for an update on my passport because it had expired. I got a phone call from an administrator at the passport office and they said there was a problem.‘They said my application was being reviewed by the policy department, they said they needed further government documents with my name.‘I sent them my driving licence, a letter from my MP and a mortgage letter by recorded delivery.’He added: ‘This is a breach of my human rights. They want to put my birth name on my passport. But that is not my name any more.’Body Art has now sent an official letter of complaint to the passport office, and local MP John Hemming is backing him, and has also written asking for clarification. Mr Hemming said: ‘Obviously there do need to be limits on what names are acceptable for public documents but these limits should be consistent and the policy as to what is acceptable should be clear.‘I have written to the passport agency to see why they take a different view from the DVLA.’A spokeswoman for the Passport Office said they did not comment on individual cases.The office's policy on names reads: ‘Where an applicant changes his or her name to a string of words or phrases that would not normally be recognised as a name, this should not be entered onto the personal details page of the passport.‘For example, the names "New Year" "Happy Easter" or "Good Bye" are unacceptable as, when put together, they became a recognised phrase or saying.’(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az