As he pushes his baby in the buggy in the shopping centre on a busy Saturday morning, he attracts looks.

People notice - they can't help it because he's had his whole head tattooed.

In fact, he's had 99 per cent of his body tattooed. The only bit not tattooed is the sensitive bit.

He said he does want a tattoo there - "something colourful; maybe, blue birds" - but his tattoo artist is balking at the final act.

He started the whole thing off 15 years ago when he got a tattoo of the name of his wife, Dorothy.

One thing then led to another. "I did it because I just got the one and then it became an addiction," he said.

"When I got my first, I thought I'll just get one and call it a day then I wanted just one more and then one more and the tattooist said 'If you're going to keep getting them, go big or go home'."

He went big, getting about 750 hours of tattoo work- that's 31 days in total or a month, day and night.

People do notice, though they may often be too polite to say anything.

He has no regrets. "None whatsoever," he said.

"It makes people notice me. Usually in a good way."

Mr Cross does look aggressive because of the tattoos but if you meet him he comes over as gentle and quiet. He looks fearsome but those who meet him think he's a gentle giant. He pushes the buggy holding seven-month-old, Bastien, as he accompanies his wife on the Saturday morning shop in Queanbeyan. His other child is 12-year-old Anamae.

Despite his assertion that most people approve, he admits that some people come up and disapprove.

"I had someone just tell me 'You're not going to let the little one grow up and do what you did', and I said I don't really mind as long as he looks after himself first."

He trained as a printer but now works, aptly enough, as a beautician and nail artist - he said that after working with printing machines, he would return home covered in ink.

Job interviews hold no fear for him. He says potential employers know him as "the guy with all the tattoos".

"I've never found trouble getting work," he said.

He's not contemplated getting the tattoos removed, and they are now so extensive that it would probably be impossible.

Those who do get tattoos removed, by the way, say it is fifty times more painful than the pain of having them put on in the first place. They are often removed when people get the name of a loved one tattooed and the person becomes an unloved one - and that's not the case with Mr Cross and Dorothy.

Mr Cross's tattooist, George Siatos, said that the two of them had become friends over the years. Brett came to him for the first patch of skin artistry in 2003. "He was booking two hours every two months", said the tattooist.

What about the last unmentionable bit - the final frontier?

Friendship has its limits. "We have become mates but we aren't that close!"