Ed Sheeran sports a Santa costume and shows off his extensive tattoo collection in a shirtless snap as he shares latest Instagram dump

Ed Sheeran treated his fans to a slew of hilarious photos on Monday as he shared an Instagram dump to celebrate his first day back on tour.

The singer-songwriter, 32, posted a snap of himself wearing a very sexy Santa Claus costume and chunky Moon Boots, giving a cheeky glimpse of his legs.

He donned a pair of red velvet shorts and a matching top adorned with white fluffy hems and pom-poms, adding a matching feather boa around his neck and a classic Santa hat.

In another shot, Ed posed shirtless with his arms outstretched, giving a perfect view of his extensive collection of tattoos.

The Give Me Love hitmaker has 60 inkings across his body, including cartoon penguin Pingu, a huge lion, a Heinz Ketchup label, a teddy bear, the Rolling Stones lips and a gingerbread man.

His tattoo artist recently revealed he has lost clients as a result of his work on the popstar and branded his inkings 's**t'.

Kevin Paul has spent more than 40 hours tattooing Ed, and opening up to The Mirror, he said: 'I agree with most of it, his tattoos aren't very good. And I take the p**s out of Ed all the time, when I'm with him, that they are s**t.'

However, he also revealed that all of Ed's tattoos have special personal meaning to him and are connected to his friends, family, career achievements and memories.

Ed has had his daughter's footprints inked on his back, his dad's favourite painting A Starry Night on his arm, a flower tribute for his gran who died of cancer, a Grammy trophy for his first win and the word 'Red' from when he opened Taylor Swift's Red tour in 2013.

Elsewhere in his Instagram post, Ed shared several pictures of him meeting some very famous faces.

In one photo he was seen chatting to legendary footballer, Lionel Messi, while in another he posed with pop star Kylie Minogue.

The musicians smiled as they held glasses of red wine aloft, with Ed's white shirt stained down the side, suggesting the pair had suffered an accidental spill.

Other pictures showed Ed indulging in his love of wine, with one shot showing him posing surrounded by bottles in a wine cellar.

In another snap he playfully threw up a middle finger to the camera while at dinner holding a bottle of 1983 Chateau Palmer, which costs an eye-watering £375 a pop.

Captioning the slew of fun-filled photos, Ed wrote: 'First day back on the Mathematics tour, let’s celebrate with a dump shall we'.

The Mathematics Tour is Ed's fourth and kicked off in April 2022 in Dublin in support of his fifth and sixth albums, Equals and Subtract.

It is comprised of a whopping 116 shows across four legs, and is set to conclude on September 8, this year in Larnaca, Cyprus.

Last month, newly published accounts revealed that the tour earned a staggering £400,000 a day, generating £145.2 million in turnover for Ed's company Hayagotatourboi Limited.

The Photograph chart-topper sold out stadiums like Wembley for five nights and four nights at the Eitihad Stadium in Manchester.

Accounts reveal that £118.2million came from the European leg, £24million from dates in Australia and £3million from New Zealand.

After unspecified administrative expenses were taken into account the gig enterprise was left with almost £62million, which is available for Ed to take out as payment whenever he wants.

That figure is on top of £18.25million the Thinking Out Loud star paid himself in dividends from his record sales company Ed Sheeran Limited, increasing his reported £300million fortune.