Ed Sheeran was only joking about lion chest tattoo

Singer Ed Sheeran revealed Wednesday on Instagram that his previously revealed lion chest tattoo was actually fake.

The musician jokingly posted a picture of his bare chest -- sans the wild animal -- with the caption, "Was only joking about the lion."

The deceitful tattoo was shown off by the "Thinking Out Loud" singer earlier in August, after telling the BBC he wanted to honor his selling out of Wembley Stadium three nights in a row by getting a lion tattoo that paid homage to the English National Team.

While its still unclear as to why Sheeran played the practical joke on his fans, he sure went to great lengths in order to trick everybody. Sheeran got tattoo artist Kevin Paul in on the prank when he spoke to E! News about the tattoo, saying: "The piece as it stands took about six hours to do but there is still about six hours left to complete the tattoo."