You might know Zayn Malik as the boy who walked away from the most successful boy band in history, but that was far from the end of Zayn in the news. The latest story shows him wearing a highly unusual new tattoo.
Zayn Malik burst into the public conscience when he appeared in the UK version of X Factor. Entering as a solo singer at the ripe old age of 17 he was grouped together with a few other “failed” solo entrants to form a new boy band. One Direction were born. Credited with the best voice in the group and undoubtedly a significant influence on the other lads… they would all buy into his appetite for ink. After 5 years of unprecedented success he became a global superstar before suddenly announcing his departure from the group in 2015.
He went on to great personal success, becoming the first artist to have a debut single and album reach No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic. Rumours around his mental state on leaving One Direction would come back to the front page when he pulled out of a live solo performance citing anxiety.
Bradford Bad Boy
Hailing from the Yorkshire city blighted by racial divisions and unemployment Malik was given the moniker “Bradford Bad Boy”. Though his charitable work, including representing the British Asian Trust and buying a box at the local football ground for underprivileged kids to watch football suggest he is far removed from that description.
It was his ink that marked him out, so to speak. He started by getting his Grandfather’s name in Arabic and it kind of snowballed from there. Today he has multiple inkings, but his latest has caused something of a stir.
Wrong Direction
Unveiling his latest tattoo to his 47 million fans (across all his social media platforms according to Forbes) gave the team at HIS something of a shock. We had never heard of a glow in the dark tattoo. It is easy to understand how a fan of ink might have his head turned by something so radical… it must be possible that he made an instant decision to get something done. That would certainly explain his bizarre choice of design and location. A glow in the dark light sabre drawn onto the side of his middle finger certainly gave an interesting flavour to the social media publicity.
HIS Hair Clinic
We meet plenty of young men for whom hair loss has caused severe social issues, resulting in a type of enforced agrophobia. Of course the ones we meet are the ones who have truly grabbed the bull by the horns and made a decision to do something about their hair loss. We appreciate that most 23 year olds will not have the life experience to make sense of difficult situations, for our clients that is hair loss, for Zayn it is living under the ferocious gaze of modern mass media. Maybe from that perspective he understands exactly the message he is sending out.
