Nicola Sturgeon has revealed she got her first tattoo, describing the decision as a "midlife crisis" move, but hinted at future inkings.
The former Scottish first minister displayed the new design, located on the inside of her wrist, and suggested it "might not be my last one", adding she has now "got the taste for it".
The revelation came during an exclusive interview with ITV News, ahead of the publication of her memoirs, Frankly, later this week.
What is Nicola Sturgeon’s tattoo of?
Ms Sturgeon described the design, which she came up with, as being “kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow” – adding that stood for “strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible”.
She was asked about it when she was questioned by ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Midlife crisis alert! What it is, is known really only to me, but I’ll give you a kind of sense of it. It’s kind of an infinity symbol with an arrow, and I came up with the design myself.
“In summary, what it signifies to me is strength, resilience and continuing to move forward, even when it feels impossible.
“And it might not be my last one now that I’ve got the taste for it.”
In the same interview Scotland’s former first minister said that she still misses her mentor Alex Salmond “in some way”.
The pair formed one of the most successful political partnerships in UK history however their relationship deteriorated and then broke down after sexual misconduct allegations against him emerged.
Following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020, Mr Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges, which included attempted rape and sexual offences.
She said she was hit by a “wave of grief” after hearing of his death in October last year.
Speaking to ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham, she said: “Even today I still miss him in some way, the person that I used to know and the relationship we used to have.
“But I thought I had made my peace with it, that I’d got to a point where I felt nothing.
“And then I got a call to tell me that Alex Salmond had died. I started crying on the phone and I just was hit by this wave of grief… and it was complicated because obviously we weren’t just no longer friends, we were political enemies.
“There was no prospect I was going to be able to go to his funeral or anything like that and it was a kind of strange, strange feeling.”
Mr Salmond went on to become leader of the Alba Party, which became a frequent critic of his former party the SNP.
He died suddenly of a heart attack in October in North Macedonia at the age of 69.
Ms Sturgeon, who succeeded him as Scotland’s first minister in 2014, said: “At the point he died, I hadn’t spoken to him for years.
“I felt really deeply the loss of the relationship with him. I suddenly didn’t have him. He wasn’t there. I couldn’t talk to him. And I went through this period of I would still talk to him in my head.
“I would have vivid dreams that we were still on good terms. And then I’d have this feeling of such sadness when I remembered the reality.
“So, I went through that process. I still missed him in some bizarre way.”
