What Has Become of Ed Sheeran’s Lion Tattoo?

Ed Sheeran's lion tattoo: here one day, gone the next.

On August 11, 2015, a day reference manuals will one day hail as the fillip to a great caper, Ed Sheeran asked someone—an artist, an accomplice—to etch the noble beast onto his chest; a creature he could never hope to erase. A brave lion. An orange lion. A lion that compelled him to observe "ouch" through social media program Instagram.

Today, August 26, 2015, the lion—whether by design or happenstance—escaped the limits of Ed Sheeran's torso. He fled like someone running from someone, something; fled like someone who was running away from it all. Fled like someone who's clutching to hope that whatever's way over there—way on that other side—will have been worth the journey.

Is Ed Sheeran's lion tattoo:

1) Temporary?
2) A light-refracting, celestial illusion?
3) Houdini, resurrected to perform a final escapist "gotcha" stunt?
4) A reminder that we are fleeting, transient things—nothing more than bits of dust drifting through space and time?
5) Momentarily obscured by makeup because Ed Sheeran is filming his announced role on FX's The Bastard Executioner (the most likely answer)?

"Was only joking about the lion," Ed Sheeran has offered as investigations loom. Excuse us, Ed Sheeran, but we are in no mood to laugh. In no mood to smile. In no mood to feel anything at all.

Do you know what happened to Ed Sheeran's lion tattoo? Was he "lion" about having gotten it?

See an inked-up collection of celeb tattoos: