BODY artists of Body Candy in Stretford have joined tattooists throughout Greater Manchester raising funds for the Manchester Arena bombing victims by providing clients with tattoos of the Manchester Bee.

Clients pay £50 and all the money goes to the appeal fund, with the artists doing the work for free. The appeal has been taken up by studios all over the Greater Manchester region.

Owner Janet Taylor and her colleagues, Courtney Chamberlain and Brian Frost, devoted the whole of May 25 and 26 to the project, having started doing the tattoos earlier that week.

Janet said: “Showing we can all stand together as one means more than bullets and bombs. As a city we've always managed to do this so well, so let's mark that with a tattoo

“I would like to thank each and every one of the customers for participating as without them we couldn't have done it: team work, Manchester pulling together as always when there’s a crisis.”

By May 27, Body Candy had raised more than £2000. It will keep customers updated on the appeal’s progress through its Facebook page and will continue to fit in other potential clients into its booking schedule over the next fortnight or to when the appeal closes.

The Honey Bee has traditionally been a symbol of hard work. Seen as a fitting image of the human endeavour which made Manchester the centre of the Industrial Revolution, it was incorporated into Manchester’s Coat of Arms in 1842.