Shane Lynch

Boyzone member/entrepreneur

My first tattoo, I was 15. I spent my first wage packet as a working man — I was a car mechanic — on it. I remember I went into town on the 29a bus, with my wages, £55, in a brown envelope. I was going in, alone, to buy a pair of trainers, and I saw a little tattoo shop and thought, ‘I fancy one of them.’

So I hopped off the bus, a spur of the moment thing, and went in and had a look round. The guy said, ‘Are you 18?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ I picked a big grim reaper and got it on my back. I didn’t tell anyone — not my best friend, my parents, no one, and no one knew until two years later, when we made the first Boyzone video.

It’s visible in the video, and I knew my family were all waiting to see it, and I couldn’t make up my mind to tell them, or just let them see it. In the end, I said to my parents, ‘I need to talk to you . . . ’

I told them, and my old man said, ‘Is that it? I thought you were going to tell me you’d got some girl pregnant . . .’

After that, I travelled the world with Boyzone, and I got a tattoo in nearly every country we went to. Some were to mark dates and occasions, others are just art I liked. I have motor-sport images — cars, flags, engine parts. I also have music images —microphones, fiddles, bodhrans. They signify the two worlds I live in.

My big projects at the moment are Ver2 Vodka — a party vodka with caffeine and guarana in it, which is UK-based mostly, but we’re about to land into Dublin — and the fragrance, which was launched just before Christmas, and went great. On the back of that I’m doing a range of loungewear — vests, hooded tops, chill-out clothes, underwear — that is LA-based at the moment, and will be widely marketed over the next six months.

I have no tattoos of names, not even my kids’, except Jesus, across my back. I’m into crosses, rosary beads, religious images, and I love my Jesus.

I have no tattoos of names, not even my kids’, except Jesus, across my back. I’m into crosses . . . and I love my Jesus