Hugh Warwick , trustee of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society being tattooed with a hedgehog design.

Hugh Warwick, author of a Prickly Affair, My Life With Hedgehogs and Trustee of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society being tattooed with a hedgehog design as part of the EXT INKED project in aid of endangered species.EXT INKED is a new art project from Ultimate Holding Company, in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society, Buglife (The Invertebrate Conservation Trust) and the People's Trust for Endangered Species.In the year in which the world celebrates Charles Darwin's bicentennial birthday, a young Manchester designer, Jai Redman, decided to create Ext Inked< http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53821461827>a once-in-a-lifetime social experiment.With the assistance of conservation charities and tattooists, he has put on an exhibition of drawings, individually illustrating 100 of the most endangered species in the British Isles. It opened this month and reached its conclusion on Friday 27 November 2009 with the live tattooing of the drawings of the fading species, invertebrates, birds, mammals, fungi and plants, on 100 willing volunteers.Many people offered to be tattooed, sending in excellent reasons for the honour. Jenny Jones Green London Assembly Member is by far the oldest to be tattooed, choosing a rare Shrill Carder Bee for her design. Hugh Warwick, author of a Prickly Affair, My Life With Hedgehogs and Trustee of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, showed his commitment to the animal he has studied for the last 20 years by becoming the very first 'ambassador' as part of the ExtInked Project. Each tattoo is of a species listed on the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan - and the hedgehog was added to the list when the national population was found to have fallen 40% in the last 25 years.