Tattoo staff worked overtime to ensure more than 200 parents who experienced baby loss received a free baby footprint tattoo. 

The Lucky 13 Tattoo Studio on St Margaret Street in Ipswich gave the tattoos to 237 people in aid of baby loss awareness on Monday. 

The studio overran the expected hours of 8am to 8pm for the event and only finished up at 9.30pm.

Paul Stansby, one of the studio's owners, said: “It’s absolutely insane. People came from Chelmsford and elsewhere not just Ipswich. 

“It was a very emotional day. I was so proud of my team and grateful for the people who came to get it done.

 “I felt very honoured that there was a lot of men who came down to do it too. Men don’t tend to talk too much about it. It was nice to see them queuing with everyone else.

“We asked how people felt afterwards and they said it really helped. I feel so blessed that people follow what we do and trust us to help them move to the next level in their lives.”

Mr Stansby along with co-owner Jamie Hart had wanted to host the event to help people heal and "push for tomorrow". 

The team's wish was to help other parents after their own experiences suffering baby loss. 

Over the course of the 13-hour day, the queue outside the shop continued to grow.

Among the people to visit the studio, was a parent who was due to attend their baby's funeral later on that day.

Samuel Powell and his partner Chloe Skinner both sat for a tattoo in memory of their little girl who died in June last year. 

Mr Powell said the studio had "created a union" for people to go through it together.

He said: "This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this happen and it’s not just good for us it’s good for the whole town. You don’t realise how many people it happens to until it happens to you.”