Katie Piper invites people who hate their tattoos, piercings, implants or surgeries to explain what went wrong and watch someone else about to make the same mistake. Each 49-minute film pairs regret with warning: a woman whose chest tattoo cost her a nursing career sits opposite a teen planning an even larger inking; a man whose split earlobe was torn in a Croydon nightclub meets a beautician about to punch a hole through hers. The formula is bluntly effective, the camera lingering on scalpels slicing off love-names and lasers turning dolphins into blisters.
Channel 4 commissioned the project in late 2013 under the working title Undo Me, then trimmed the run from six to four episodes and renamed it Bodyshockers shortly before its 30 January 2014 launch. Ratings were strong enough for an immediate recommission: a second series arrived on 5 January 2015, dropping individual episode titles but keeping the surgeries, and a third run was confirmed midway through that broadcast. By June 2016 eighteen episodes had aired, making the show Piper’s first to secure a repeat order from the channel.
Remarkable Television produced the series for Channel 4, with Jude Parker as producer and Oliver Wright as executive producer. Episodes have since been repeated on 4seven and E4, their cautionary surgery footage now part of the channel’s late-night filler roster.
Production Details
Channel 4 / 3 Seasons / 18 Episodes / 2014
Producer(s): Jude Parker
Main Cast
