Over 80 & tattooed: Carol McGiffin’s views on OAP inking
‘Once upon a time, old people used to celebrate reaching ripe old ages in such sensible ways. Some still do. Take Phillip Schofield’s mum, Pat, who last week celebrated her 81st birthday strapped to the wings of a plane while it went for a spin! A bit of wing-walking is a perfectly reasonable thing to do by way of celebration, I say.
What’s not sensible is the likes of elderly celebrities Judi Dench, 82, David Dimbleby, 78, Judy Murray, 57, Felicity Kendal, 70, and Helen Mirren, 71, who have all gone a lot madder in their old age… by getting tattoos.
I make no secret of my dislike for this horrible, indelible craze. It’s bad enough that thousands of young people run around looking like badly graffitied toilet walls, but old people getting in on the act is much, much worse.
And, while I understand that doing something so rebellious can be quite liberating, the trouble is, you can’t really ever liberate yourself from the tattoo – once it’s there, it’s there. I know because I have one. I got it when I was very young – 14 – and very stupid. I’ve hated and regretted it for 43 years, and keep it covered up. The only good things about getting one later in life are the skin’s bagginess, which means it’s less likely to look distorted as time marches on, and the fact that you have less time to put up with it before you hate and regret it. Which, mark my words, everyone does sooner or later…’