A VIDEO producer is so fed up with the rail service that he has had “Southern Rail are s***” tattooed on his ribs.

Ruari Barratt, 36, from Whitehawk, Brighton, decided to have the inking in a notoriously painful place to symbolise the suffering rail commuters have to go through everyday.

But he said: “Getting this done doesn’t hurt nearly as much as a Southern Rail journey.

“I might end up regretting it but the point of this is to make a statement about Southern Rail.”

Mr Barratt kept the train company up to date with the progress of the tattoo by tweeting the franchise throughout the afternoon as he had it done.

Southern Rail said it did not wish to comment on the tattoo.

Mr Barratt said: “We are going to put pictures and video of the artwork on to Twitter so that people who are suffering from Southern Rail can tweet the tattoo to the management rather than take it out on staff.

“To be honest, I have had a few nightmares on the service, but I haven’t personally suffered as much as others that have to deal with it on a daily basis.”

Equally disgruntled train passengers gave donations towards the £136 artwork after a fundraiser was set up online.

The design was also crowdsourced, with people offering their own tweaks to the design.

Eventually Mr Barratt settled on a traditional train steaming out of a skull and crossbones with the words Southern Rail are s*** on the top and bottom.

Tattoo artist Ric Ruggeri, who operates under the name Brighton Ink, worked for more than four hours on the artwork.

He said: “I think it’s quite funny.

“He’s obviously passionate enough that he’s going to have this tattoo on him for the rest of his life.

“But it’s tattoos like this that give me business in a year or two’s time when I have to cover it up – although that will be virtually impossible with this one.”

When asked how he would explain the tattoo to any future grandchildren, Mr Barrett said: “I’ll tell them that back in the day before everyone drove hover cars, everybody used to get on these huge metal snakes that were poorly run.

“I’m sure they’ll understand.”

The tattoo now has its own Twitter account and can be found on @SouthernRailAreS***.

You can watch the video of Ruari getting the tattoo on www.theargus.co.uk.