Leopard Man to be laid to rest in Inverness
Thomas Woolridge, an English-born former soldier, also known as Tom Leppard, lived in a secluded bothy on Skye for 20 years, where he was well known for his black and yellow skin.
When being exposed to the Hebridean extremities became too much, Mr Woolridge moved to a house in Broadford in the south of the island, before spending his latter years in Meallmore Lodge Care Home at Daviot, where he died on Sunday, aged 80.
The pensioner was once the world’s most tattooed man and then became the most tattooed senior citizen. He funded his solitary existence by being photographed, often only wearing a tiny leopard print pouch to give the illusion of being naked.
Mr Woolridge was known to kayak to the mainland to collect supplies and his pension and had said he enjoyed his quiet life. He had no electricity in his bothy and would wash in the freezing waters outside his simple home.
“I have never been lonely by myself,” he said in a documentary about his life. “In a big city is where I am lonely.”
His entry in the Guinness World Records said 99.9 per cent of his body was covered in tattoos of a “leopard-skin design, with all the skin between the dark spots tattooed saffron yellow”.
Mr Woolridge was knocked from the most tattooed man spot in 2006 by street performer Lucky Rich from Australia who began with a collection of colourful designs before opting for a complete covering of black ink, including eyelids, the delicate skin between the toes and the gums.
Despite being nicknamed after the leopard, Mr Woolridge never felt affiliated to the big cat and picked the designs because they were easy and cheap to tattoo. He branded any suggestion he had a spiritual affinity with the animal as “nonsense”.
The funeral will take place at noon at St Columba’s RC Church in Culloden, thereafter to Daviot Cemetery.
