Dame Helen Mirren, who earned an Oscar for her role in The Queen, has a tattoo on her left thumb. And every time she’s been asked about it, the evergreen diva has said she used to be mortified by her tattoo and quoted the same statement: “I got this one when only Hell’s Angels had tattoos.”
Mirren, on the other hand, no longer finds tattoos repulsive, and she has expressed interest in getting a second one in recent years.
The Commercialization of Tattoos Made Her Angry
Mirren desired to do something that would be remembered as the most shocking thing she had ever done. According to her interview on Good Morning America, this was the thought that prompted her to be tattooed.
The actress also joked that she got her tattoo while “very, very intoxicated” and that “only sailors and Hell’s Angels were tattooed” at the time.
The Queen actress, on the other hand, had to endure a lot of discomforts when receiving the tattoo because it was done using a safety pin. “It was excruciatingly uncomfortable.” Oh, my goodness. “It’s like a jail tattoo,” Mirren stated in a Cannes Film Festival interview. However, the tattoo was well worth the discomfort because of the strong message it conveyed. In her own words, the actress says:
It [her thumb tattoo] signifies a very lovely philosophy, which is basically ‘equal and opposite,’ that someone can be as different from you as you can imagine while yet having equal value to you, which is something I believe in in life.
Everything had been perfect up to that moment. However, as time passed, tattoos became more commercialized and “fully popular.” And it was intolerable to the actress, who was also disgusted at one point by her thumb tattoo.
Read More: Michael Joseph Jackson The First Son of King of Pop-Short Biography
She’s excited to get her second tattoo now
Despite having been appalled by tattoos at one time in her life, the Prime Suspect actress has a soft spot for body art. During an appearance on the Today show in November 2019, Mirren stated that she was looking forward to having her second tattoo.
The actress went on to say that as she gets older, she may get additional tattoos on her body, admitting that the process of acquiring tattoos can be addicting.
Mirren had previously indicated her desire to have a full sleeve tattoo in 2016. “I’d like a complete sleeve,” she told Radio Times. I think it’s a better and better notion as you get older.” She also stated that she would like a curved pattern, preferably snakes, running up her sleeves.