Once again Felicity Kendal proves herself to be the nations eternal sweetheart. How can you not love a woman who says shes a rock chick aged 66? Im not sure about the tattoo, though. The mark of the rebellious young person, tattoos just say bad decision. Unlike other body décor, you cant take them off, except with lasers, and even then imperfectly.
Tattoos are horrendous. Of course I support Kendals right to rock, but why do it? Theres nothing attractive about them. Employers hate them. The sight of one ruins a working suit or evening dress. Sure, you have the right to do what you want with your own body, but I also hate studs through lips and those repulsive, disfiguring giant hoops placed inside the earlobes to distend and distort them.
All these things speak to what the French would say is mal dans sa peau. Im uncomfortable in my own skin, so I want to change it. It takes fandom to the ultimate, pathetic degree. I love my boyfriend until the split, when I have to go back to the parlour and get a giant skull tattooed over his name. Tattoos are an attempt to freeze a moment in aspic; to have permanence in a body that changes, grows, adapts. They are regarded as low-class (whatever your economic background, even that of a TV star). And rightly so.
The only exception is the military tattoo. That is a badge of honour nobody could object to.
Maureen Lipman, actress
I hate tattoos, except on young Maori men. I believe theyre banned in our religion, but I could be wrong. Good luck to Felicity whatever gets her through the night.
Victoria Hislop, author
Absolutely, I would have a tattoo, and have been planning one for a few years. I have researched where to go to have it done, and have decided what to have a very small mati, the Greek eye symbol. Now I just have to decide where its going to go. Probably on my wrist, though I might need another year to decide on the exact location.
The worst thing would be to make a rash decision over something so irreversible. I have seen plenty of my childrens friends return from gap years with badly drawn swans or skulls across their backs, or names of bands they will have forgotten in five years all the result of a drunken night out. And if they look awful now, in five years they will regret having had it done, and in 50, even more so.
I hugely admire Felicity Kendal always have done so I am definitely going to go ahead with my tattoo. Hers sound really pretty, too.
Emma Soames, editor-at-large of Saga magazine
Tattoos are better than Botox? What a silly thing for Felicity Kendal to say, conflating two very different procedures that have only one thing in common skin.
Over tattoos, the world divides into two camps body art versus tramp stamp. I am firmly in the tramp-stamp corner. Ive never had one, never considered having one, and never will. Indeed, I regard my greatest triumph of mothering as having kept my daughter out of tattoo parlours.
Like most things, tramp stamps do not get more desirable with age. A tortoise tattooed on the shoulder looks no better at 65 than at 15.
I have friends who got drunk in Bali when they were 21 and have the indelible evidence from a tattoo parlour to prove it. Thankfully, we have digital cameras for holiday memories these days.
Felicity Kendal shows a worrying desire to fiddle endlessly with her appearance, sometimes with rather tragic results. When she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, her mouth looked like a deep-sea creature gasping for food, so at least its good to hear she has given up on messing about with Botox.
The mantra for older women should be less is more. It applies as much to ones clothes which should be unadorned; you cant do frills and furbelows when youre my age as to tattoos and the sort-of youthful look apparently acquired in a wind tunnel.
Lucy Worsley, historian
Its sometimes said that today only two unforgivable crimes remain: racism and a failure to re-cycle your plastic. Adultery, drug-dealing, murder and so on may be blamed on a difficult childhood.
In this liberal context, surely there is nothing offensive about a tattoo? The news that Felicity Kendal has two tattoos and wants a third, should remove the last traces of rebelliousness from their image.
And yet the stigma still lingers. Adolf Loos in 1910 was damning: Tattoos are a sign of degeneracy and only seen on criminals and degenerate aristocrats. Historically, they were the preserve of the sailors whod visited the South Seas, where body art was born.
Like heraldry, or fashionable trainers, a tattoo shows how its owner fits into a hierarchical world. Most, however, are catcalls, saying: I lift a finger to you and your stultifying hierarchies.
They can, of course, be symbols of privilege. Edward VII sported tattoos, and was rumoured to mark his established mistresses with a snake around a wrist. Among my own age group, a tattooed ankle is similarly a mark of high caste: it shows its owner enjoyed a gap yah in Kathmandu.
I would never have a tattoo. Not out of disapproval I simply fear making a lifetimes most lasting spelling mistake.
Wendy Cope, poet
I have never been tempted to get a tattoo because, a) it hurts, and, b) I dont think it improves anyones appearance. Ive never even had my ears pierced, either although I have been vaguely intending to do that for the past 20 years or so. I knew someone who had her ears pierced on her 75th birthday, so maybe Ill do that.
Lady Steel, wife of former Liberal leader David Steel
Do I have any regrets about getting a pink jaguar tattoo to celebrate my 70th birthday? No regrets at all!
Its just a little thing, its very decent on my shoulder, a bit of me that doesnt show the wear and tear of all the years spent enjoying food and wine. Im thinking of offering a private viewing at a silent auction for the [Liberal Democrat] party.
I had it done two years ago at a parlour in Selkirk, and it took just 40 minutes to complete. It didnt hurt that much at all. What was quite extraordinary was how excited I became about it. Once Id decided to have it done, I didnt dare tell anyone apart from one nephew (he thought it was great!). If Id told my family, they would have tried to talk me out of it. When my husband saw it, he said: I assume thats a transfer?
My only regret now is that I didnt call my memoirs The Granny with the Jaguar Tattoo. It might have sold a few more copies.
Travelling is my life
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