Tattoos used to be for sailors, then rebels and cool people and now they’re…everywhere. Which begs the question, are they still cool? Every celebrity these days seems to ink themselves regularly, no matter what their brand might be. David Beckham reminds me of that line in Cape Fear, ‘I don’t know whether to look at him or read him’.

Magazines make getting a tattoo seem as natural as getting a hair cut and it would be easier to count the people I know that don’t have a tattoo than those who do. The fact is, it is beginning to annoy me because getting a tattoo is not like getting a haircut: it is permanent, expensive, painful and carries health risks. I can say this because I, like pretty much everyone else in the world, have one. Albeit one from ten years ago when I was a teenager; the Japanese Tao for courage on my hip bone. It is tiny and can be covered by my thumb. Which is what the criteria for having a tattoo should be in my opinion: making it able to be hidden. If you don’t agree then think of some of my poor acting friends, who have lost work due to their body art, and singers with hand tattoos who can’t get hired. If the entertainment industry is not keen on people with tattoos imagine how the ‘real’ working world is like. CEO’s with lots of tattoos are not exactly common.

Megan Fox had her tattoo of Marilyn Monroe removed because it had ‘negative energy’.

In fact, not everyone can pull of tattoos. Angelina Jolie can but she is so beautiful not much could dent her beauty. It was actually Angelina who inspired me to get a tattoo in the first place. And Jolie is not immune from mistakes, she had her ‘Billy Bob’ tattoo removed after she divorced the actor.  Before Jolie actresses were much more boring, after she came along it became okay to ink yourself up and actually have an opinion. Bland went out, personality came in. But that was a brief window, and you have to be a pretty big star to be work the make up artists budget for hiding it all.

Angelina Jolie shows of her tats for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue.

Lana Del Ray’s hand tattoo

So should you get a tattoo? Let’s break it down.

Think first about the safety concerns. There are serious medical implications in getting a tattoo. Click on this link for more of the safety concerns which include: Tattooing and piercing break the skin and may cause bleeding. They cause open wounds and infection is possible. Infections at the site may cause permanent deformity, scarring, severe illness and even death. Skin infected with resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be life-threatening.

Tattoos are also painful. Very much so. I have a very high pain threshold and I still thought it was painful.

Secondly, what do you do for a living? As much as we should not judge people by how they look, we do. It might hold back your career and even affect how other people treat you.

Thirdly, are you just doing it to be rebellious? Because tattoos are not rebellious anymore. Everyone has them; even Felicity Kendall and my aunt. That is when you know the game is over.

Fourthly, do you really want it for life? Have a very serious think about that. Removal is expensive, as you can see from the information below. Make absolute sure it is what you want, and NEVER get someones name tattooed on you. You will regret it.

THINKING OF HAVING A CHERYL COLE ROSE BUM TATTOO? LIVE TO REGRET IT AND REMOVAL WILL COST YOU £12,000

·      Rapper Lil Wayne would have to spend £105k and 173 hours to get rid of all his tattoos

·      David Beckham would have to spend £38k and 71 hours to be ink-free

·      One Direction’s Harry Styles would need to fork out £11k to remove his tattoos

·      68% increase in Brits enquiring about tattoo removal in the past year

If you’re thinking of copying Cheryl Cole and having a rose bum tattoo, bear in mind that it could cost £12,000 and 20 hours of laser sessions to have Cole’s latest inking removed, according to new research carried out by private healthcare search engine WhatClinic.com.

They have analysed the body art of 10 of the most tattooed celebrities and worked out how much it would cost to have it all removed. The research shows that, should they ever regret their decision to go under the needle, these celebs could end up paying tens of thousands of pounds to be tattoo free.

Top of the league table of inked-up celebrities is U.S. rapper Lil Wayne, who would need more than 500 sessions totaling 173 hours with a tattoo-removal specialist to erase all his artwork – at a mind-boggling cost of almost £105,000. That’s enough to buy a top-of-the-range Porsche or double the average deposit on a property put down by a first-time buyer in the UK last year.

David Beckham’s body is not just a temple, it is also adorned with tattoos from top to bottom, meaning a staggering bill of almost £40,000 – and the equivalent of 48 football matches in time under the needle – to be tattoo free again. And One Direction star Harry Styles may be just 19-years-old, but he’s already an avid lover of body artwork. And the cost to have them removed? Almost £11,000.

While the colossal cost may not be eye-watering for celebrities, for the millions of Brits who have and love tattoos, wiping the slate clean is likely to put a strain on their finances and in many cases may be unaffordable.

There has been a 68% increase in the number of people enquiring about tattoo removal in the past 12 months alone, with the cost of removing a small, black and white tattoo starting at £400. That fits with market research showing that significant numbers of people end up regretting their tattoos – a recent poll by Harris Research showed that almost a fifth (19%) of Britons with tattoos regretted having them done.

The following table, based on average costs provided by three tattoo-removal specialists, estimates how many laser sessions and total cost for some of the most famous tattooed celebrities to have all their tattoos removed:

Wayne Tatzapa, founder of tattoo removal specialist, Discardead, comments: “Despite tattoo removal being an exact science there are many variables that can determine the number of sessions required to remove all trace of the tattoo.

“The time needed to remove a tattoo varies according to the individual, as do the chances of wiping out any trace of it. Skin type, the tattoo’s location and colour, scarring and the degree of density all make a difference.

“Many people don’t realise that removing tattoos can take months or even years, because laser sessions should be at least six weeks to three months apart to get the best results and minimise the risk of scarring and other side effects.”

Do you have a tattoo? Do you regret it?