Between tattoos and talent

“Is it in case you forget their names and birthdays?”

Telt. I dropped the idea of getting a tattoo altogether.

My son already has a rather beautiful tattoo on his inner bicep. Given the location, it’s not a statement tattoo. It’s hidden most of the time. I remember at the time being curious as to why he had chosen that particular spot.

“Not everyone will see it. Some people are funny about tattoos.”

One of those people is Margaret Mountford, former right-hand woman to that fuzzy wee man that presents The Apprentice. The lawyer and businesswoman believes employers will be put off by inked youth.

“There are swathes of the workplace where it is simply not appropriate to be greeted by a young person with a tattoo,” she said. “They are a real problem for young people.”

I once worked with Margaret. She’s a very decent woman, as well as being highly successful and good company. And some years ago the younger me might have agreed with her on this subject.

There was no great culture of tattoos in my family. In those days, tattoos were very much associated with sailors and the seamier side of life. My dad used to work at a “List D” (or “reform”) school and every so often he would bring one of the youngsters home as part of the school’s re-engagement process. I’d sit