The cover depicts Eddie as a lobotomized mental patient trapped in a padded cell. This is the reason why, from this release forward, Eddie has a metal plate with bolts on his forehead.

The padded cell is open; Eddie shall escape as seen on Flight of Icarus

Before the album was released the band introduced their single Flight of Icarus (3th song on the album). On this single cover you see Eddie, who escaped the little box floating near by the sun. His padded cell.

Another nice detail is the burning angel / Icarus.

Riggs explaines:
"It's got Eddie burning Icarus up with a flamethrower thing. Just when they decided to do that as a single, Led Zeppelin decided they weren't making any more records, so that burning Icarus figure is a takeoff from Led Zeppelin's Swan Song logo. If you look at that, it's got Robert Plant as an angel with his wings on, so we burned him (laughs)."

Also interesting on the (back) cover is the floating hand. This glove, with a chain and a piece of jewelry has the signature of Derek Riggs.

In his words:
"The meaning behind it is just something that occurred to me. It reminds me of something I grew up with as a kid. There was a comic hero, Louis Crandall, The Steel Claw. It was this guy who had a steel hand, and he stuck his fingers in the light socket or something, he would turn invisible, apart from the steel hand. And when I was like five, I thought that was real cool. I think I said to my dad, 'Would that work?' He said 'No, you would just die.' So anyway, they kind of cut this thing out and hung it on pieces of string as part of the display in the record stores. So my signature is floating around in stores."

On the inner sleeve, there are some clues to the brains on the vinyl lable of side 1 and 2. The band found an old, spooky manor house on the island of Jersey in the English Channel for a photo shoot. The photograph depicts the band sitting at a large table with, in the front, some 'Food For Thought' which was the supposed title of the album. Later on, they decided to change the title to the stronger 'Piece of Mind'. Eddies brain / mind!

Eddie, also known as Eddie the Head, is the mascot for Iron Maiden. Designed by Derek Riggs, he is a perennial fixture of the group's artwork, appearing in all of their album covers (as well as most of their singles) and in their merchandise.

Eddie was based on the zombie-like figure that appears on the sleeve of the group's first single, "Running Free."

Eddie's image has evolved and regressed throughout the years, largely due to the contributions of artists other than Riggs. Beginning with 1992's Fear of the Dark, Eddie has taken on occasionally more demonic portrayals, but his most popular imagery remains the cartoon zombie.

Some more Eddie through the years

Iron Maiden are a British heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. The band is considered as pioneers of the new wave of British heavy metal. After several line-up changes, the band had a series of UK and US platinum and gold albums in the eighties. The Number of the Beast (1982) was their first in line on which they introduced Eddie as Cover Art.

Since the return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith in 1999, the band have undergone a resurgence in popularity. The band's discography has grown to thirty-eight albums, including sixteen studio albums, eleven live albums, four EPs, and seven compilations. Their sixteenth studio album, The Book of Souls, was released on 4 September 2015.

The Number of the Beast