Ed Sheeran says his opinion is the only one that matters after fans complain about singer's new lion tattoo

Even Tom from Keane weighed in on 'LionTattooGate'

Ed Sheeran (Getty)

Ed Sheeran has built a loyal and passionate fanbase off the back of his crooning songs and innocent looking face, but his emotionally fine-tuned fans are divided over the giant tattoo of a lion the singer got inked on his chest this week.

Sheeran Instagrammed the progress with the caption 'Halfway and ouch', showing the full-colour animal lodged right between his nipples.

He told the BBC he got the ink to commemorate his three sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium:

“Originally I was going to get the floor plan tattooed on my side, but that seemed a bit ridiculous," he said, although given he has a tattoo of a ketchup bottle who knows what is or isn't ridiculous when it comes to tattoos.

A photo posted by @teddysphotos on Aug 11, 2015 at 2:36am PDT

The far more pragmatic design has upset several fans, who have tweeted to express their torn feelings:

But it wasn’t just fans who were scratching their heads. Keane’s frontman Tom Chaplin aired his thoughts, too, tweeting: "Please tell me this is a prank. Cos if it isn’t, @edsheeran has a really bad picture of a lion on his chest FOREVER."

Sheeran responded with some typically wise advice. “I like it, and that’s the only opinion that matters”.

Well that’s the end of that then.