Tattoos could help identify Hayling Island beach body
Tattoos could help identify the body of a man found washed up on a Hampshire beach, police have said.
A member of the public discovered the decomposed body on New Year's Day at the junction of Southwood Road and Bosmere Road on Hayling Island.
Officers said the body was that of a white man thought to be aged between 50 and 60 years, about 6ft 5ins tall and of stocky build.
His tattoos include a skull wearing a Native American headdress.
Police said the man had crew-cut receding grey hair and was wearing a set of dentures on the upper right portion of his mouth.
He was dressed in a black t-shirt, Easy-brand jeans and brown Chelsea-style size 44 boots, and was wearing a black plastic Casio digital watch.
Among the tattoos was a skull and crossbones on his right upper arm, a dagger through a heart with scrolls top and bottom with the words 'mum & dad' on his lower inside right arm, as well as an eagle head with a scroll saying 'Eric'.
On his right forearm there was a bird tattoo, on the upper part of his left arm there was a tattoo of the Welsh feathers with the words 'Forever Wales' and on the lower left arm a black panther, a skull, horns and a face.
Det Insp Scott Clarke of Hampshire Constabulary, said: "We're very keen to establish the identity of this man and would appeal to anyone who may recognise either the description of the clothes he was wearing or his numerous tattoos to get in touch.
"There is nothing to suggest this man is local and, for that reason, we are focussing right along the coast incorporating both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset and up to Wales."
The man's death is being treated as unexplained.
A post-mortem examination has been conducted and police are awaiting test results.