"Tattoos are like stories. They're symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolises, is really beautiful."
Thus spake Pamela Anderson, presumably at some point prior to the moment she felt obliged by circumstances to change the "Tommy" tattoo around her wedding finger to read "Mommy". Happily, we'll always have their honeymoon sex tape to remind us of the way Pammy and Motley Crue's Tommy Lee were.
With other celebrities, however, the hasty editing of a tattoo presents more of a challenge.
As Hadley chronicled on Friday, some vulgar accusations have been thrown about concerning Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole and her footballer husband Ashley, and a reasonably-priced star-print frock is the unfortunate victim. But spare a thought too for Cheryl who, despite spending yesterday in legal conference with Ashley, may yet decide the "body art" inked upon her neck requires urgent reimagining.
To be perfectly honest, Lost in Showbiz had imagined a small branding which could be swiftly covered over with a Chinese symbol or the Girls Aloud logo. But having beheld the sheer scale of the "Mrs Cole" which bestrides Cheryl's neck, and established that the location is too close to the bone to be effectively lasered, it now invites suggestions for manner in which a skilful tattooist - or even a half-cut Sarah Harding with a compass - could alter the inscription if need be. "Mis Take"? Someone else's name entirely? Do rack your brains, bearing in mind that over time, the tattoo might need to be altered again, until Cheryl's neck becomes a kind of palimpsest, whose deciphering could ultimately prove the Rosetta Stone of early 21st century C-listery.
