NEVER MIND THE SCHOOL FEES!
BBC antiques expert’s privately educated daughter becomes punk rocker... with alma mater’s motto tattooed on her chest
ROSES, butterflies, the names of loved ones and mystic symbols are all popular tattoo designs.
They did not appeal, however, to Hetti Harper, who instead had the motto of her old school inscribed in a very prominent place.
In another twist, the inking just under the 23-year-old’s collar bone is in Latin: ‘Parvis imbutus tentabis grandia tutus.’
This translates as: ‘When you are steeped in little things, you shall safely attempt great things.’
However, the punk rocker’s tribute to the £15,000-a-year private school did not impress her TV presenter father David Harper, who has appeared on BBC shows including Bargain Hunt and The Antiques Road Trip.
The 52-year-old said: ‘Hetti thought it a great idea to have the school motto tattooed across her torso as the school played such a big part in her music development.
‘After I freaked out at the sight of the tattoo, I was furious that after all the money I’d spent on her education, I really didn’t expect her to end up being a free walking advert for the school.’
He has since taken an unusual approach to the subject, saying: ‘However, a little later I had the brilliant idea to ask the school if they’d effectively like to sponsor Hetti in her music career and give me back some of the school fees I’d paid.
‘I’m hoping that I’ll get some money back from the school and from Hetti once she makes it.’
From the age of five, Miss Harper attended Barnard Castle School, County Durham, where she was classically trained as a singer and became head of the choir. After leaving at 18, she formed punk band Tiffany Twisted.
She said of her tattoo: ‘It’s been something that’s very close to my heart.
‘I was at this school since I was very young, since I was five. I’d read it time and again, I saw it constantly. It was written on our jumpers, blazers, it was all over the school, on the pews in the chapel.
‘It was instilled in us from being very young that little things add up to make bigger things, everything was adding up to something.
‘I got my friend to do it for me, he spelt it wrong first time – thankfully he was able to correct it.
‘I’m absolutely glad. I don’t think my dad is too pleased but I don’t think he likes any of them.’ There is, however, a downside to have such an unusual tattoo on display.
‘People are asking me all the time to translate it, that’s getting a bit annoying but other than that I’m very happy,’ said Miss Harper.
Her father, an antiques and classic car expert, started collecting coins and stamps aged just five and made his first purchase – a Victorian silver-plated basket – aged nine. The Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall has revealed she would be horrified if one of her daughters got a tattoo.
When asked if her husband, rugby player Mike, had an inking, she replied: ‘He absolutely hasn’t got a tattoo. I’d also rather one of my daughters came home with a piercing than a tattoo because at least a stud can be removed.’
However, in an interview in next month’s Saga Magazine, the royal, who has a tongue piercing herself, admitted: ‘I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if they did though.’
She famously went to a tattoo parlour near her Moray boarding school Gordonstoun for her £35 piercing.
‘I don’t think my dad is too pleased’