[West Ender]

I've got 3 children. They all have tattoos. My elder daughter is 42 and she recently had her first one, a rose on her shoulder. My son is 41 and plays guitar in 2 bands. He has a rather complicated skull-in-a-rose design on his shoulder - he designed it himself. My younger daughter is 30. She has a rose on her shoulder and one on her ankle. She also has a chinese symbol on her thigh. She had it done after my husband died, when she was 20, and it says, we hope, "dad", though for all we know it may say f*** off in Cantonese.

The only thing I've said, to my daughters in particular, is that with age skin dries and tends to wrinkle - it's inevitable no matter what - and when they're in their 70s they may both have a few withered roses knocking about.

I have pierced ears and it's as far as I could ever go. My younger daughter has 6 piercings in each ear and a pierced nose, in which she wears a stud. Sounds funny when she's a Brown Owl but, somehow, she doesn't look "out of place" and they are quite discreet. I would never have a tattoo, it's just not ME, but it's fashionable just now and becoming very common-place.

Each to his own, I suppose.