People are getting tattoos of a true Bristol icon after release of new film

Bristol icons Wallace & Gromit returned to the big screen at Christmas with their latest film, Vengeance Most Fowl. The film also saw the comeback of another character from the franchise, who has become a surprising fan favourite.

Feathers McGraw, the claymation penguin who first appeared in the 1993 film 'Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers', returned for the new instalment, sparking an unexpected rise in tattoos of the iconic villain. Faith Garvie, an artist at Black Moon Tattoo Studio in Liverpool, told the BBC she had done "six Feathers" in the past week.

She said: "I guess it's just the magic of claymation, as he's so emotive but he doesn't speak at all. One guy came in and got his first tattoo - it was of the 'Feathers Wanted' poster. He was the dad of two teenagers and said he had really wanted the tattoo since lockdown, so that was really lovely."

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Faith explained that most clients wanted the designs "because they grew up with the characters or their family grew up with them". Photos of people showing off their Feathers McGraw tattoos have racked up thousands of likes on social media.

Faith said there were two particular tattoos of McGraw which her customers asked for.

"One of them is from Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers - it's where Feathers gets stuck in a glass bottle. Everyone seems to adore that and some people get it with the glove on his head and others without.

"There's also a scene - again, where he's in The Wrong Trousers, where he's standing at the bottom of the stairs in Wallace and Gromit's house and he looks over at them, and people get that scene a lot as well."

Vengeance Most Fowl was recently nominated for an Oscar in the category 'Best animated feature'.