The Chop: Father of contestant still alive - after he said 88 Nazi symbol was tribute to year he died

‘I’m here aren’t I? I’m alive and kicking so I’m not dead yet,’ says 66-year-old Trevor Lumsden

Darren Lumsden is a contestant on Sky History’s new woodworking show, The Chop (Twitter screengrab)

The father of a contestant in a woodwork-based talent show on Sky’s history channel has revealed himself to be alive, after the network claimed he had died in an explanation of his son’s neo-Nazi tattoos.

Darren Lumsden, a carpenter on Sky History’s new programme The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker, became the centre of attention after a promotional video showed several tattoos visible on his face that depict symbols commonly used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Sky said the symbolism was “entirely incidental”, adding that amongst the various numerical tattoos on Mr Lumsden’s body, the number 88 etched onto his cheek represents the yea 1988, “the year of his father’s death”.

But Mr Lumsden's father, 66-year-old Trevor Lumsden, has told the Daily Mail he was indeed alive and had not seen his son “for some years”.

He was quoted as saying: “I’m here aren’t I? I’m alive and kicking so I’m not dead yet.”

Trevor, who lives in Bristol – the same city Darren lives in – told the newspaper he did not know about his son’s tattoos or that he was appearing on television, but added: “But if they are saying I’m dead I’d like them to know I’m not.”

The carpenter’s father said he suffers from short-term memory loss due to a brain injury he sustained in a motorbike accident and has a support worker, who declined to be named, visiting him every day.

The support worker said he had never seen either Darren or Trevor’s other son from another relationship, despite looking after Trevor for a decade. He described Trevor as “a lovely man and very much alive”.

The number 88 is often used as a numerical code for “Heil Hitler”, as “H” is the eighth letter in the alphabet.

Darren also carries the numbers 23 and 15 at the sides of his head, which usually signify “white power” using the same numerical code.

On his scalp, the father of two has the number 14 tattooed. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), this is often used as shorthand for the 14 Words - “the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world”, coined by far-right terrorist David Lane.

He also appears to have a Sig rune on the right side of his nose, which was used by the Nazis to symbolise victory. Two of these runes is used by neo-Nazis to signify the SS and are often confused for lightning bolts.

Sky initially attempted to deflect the growing outrage at the contestant’s body art by defending it and said in a statement: “Darren’s tattoos denote significant events in his life and have no political and ideological meaning whatsoever.”

The channel insisted its production team carried out “extensive background checks” on all contestants and confirmed Darren had no links to “racist groups, views or comments”.

The Chop: Britain’s Top Woodworker sees 10 of “Britain’s best carpenters, carvers and woodworkers” compete on a series of tasks overseen by comedian Lee Mack and presenter Rick Edwards.

Sky later said the clip had been pulled and future episodes of The Chop would not be broadcast until the “nature and meaning of Darren’s tattoos” have been fully investigated.

“Sky History stands against racism and hate speech of all kinds,” they added in a statement.

A spokesperson for Sky History told The Independent the channel has no further comment while the investigation is underway.