Kelsey Karter, a 24-year-old singer from New Zealand, has been getting a lot of attention these past couple of days for allegedly getting former One Direction member Harry Styles’ face tattooed on her cheek.

The self-confessed Styles fan shocked her fans three days ago, when she posted a photo of herself with what looked like a tattoo of the English heartthrob inked on the right side of her face. She had previously hinted that she was planning something special to celebrate Styles’ 25th birthday, tweeting “Finally know what I’m getting Harry for his birthday,” but no one expected her to get a facial tattoo of him.

Photo: Kelsey Karter/Instagram

Originally from Auckland, New Zealand but currently working out of Los Angeles, Kelsey Karter had always spoken highly of the former One Direction member and his achievements as a rock’n’roll artist, even expressing her desire to work with him, in an interview last year. Still, her facial tattoo of Styles came as a shock to many.

Karter’s gesture seemed so extreme that a lot of people were quick to label it a “publicity stunt” and the tattoo itself “fake”. Their insinuations do make a lot of sense considering that the young artist recently released a new single titled “Harry”, about (you guessed it!) Harry Styles. What better way to promote the song than doing something extreme that nobody expects?

Although Kelsey credited Los Angeles tattoo artist Romeo Lacoste for the facial portrait, a lot of people pointed out the poor quality of the design and the lack of red inflammation on the artist’s face, which they say suggests the artwork is nothing more than a sketch.

Kelsey Karter recently did an interview with New Zealand radio station The Edge in which she insisted that she really did get a tattoo of Styles and denying that it was nothing more than a promotional stunt for her new song.

“I’m a big fan of Harry and I’m not afraid to express it and I honestly don’t know how to do anything half-arsed” Karter told The Edge hosts Jono Pryor, Ben Boyce and Sharyn Casey. “I just wear my heart on my cheek and I couldn’t really control what went on from there.”

The 24-year-old singer added that the tattoo “didn’t hurt as much as you’d think”, not as much as a breakup that she recently went through, anyway.

Meanwhile, tattoo artists have been criticizing Romeo Lacoste’s work, saying it’s poorly executed and in an inappropriate place.

“It’s pretty shocking really. It’s very poorly executed in a very inappropriate place,” Miles Chaperlin, a tattooist at London’s Frith Street Tattoo studio, told BBC. “I’ve done a lot of facial tattooing and people say how hard it is to live with. So this poor girl with that thing on her face. I feel very sorry for her.”