 The appellants argued against conviction under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 as they had in all instances consented to the acts they engaged in ("volenti non fit injuria"), that as with tattooing and customary-site body piercings their consent would be directly analogous to the lawful exceptions laid out by three cornerstone (and other) widely-spaced precedent cases.The certified question of appeal which the House of Lords was asked to consider was