Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby announced earlier this week that, at the age of 75, he has finally succumbed to temptation and has had a tattoo of a scorpion etched on his shoulder. It may well be that it was simply a publicity stunt to promote his new BBC series called “Britain and the Sea” but, when interviewed, he did say that he’d always wanted one.

Predictably, the story has attracted a lot of attention and quite a few negative comments about foolish old men losing the plot, vain celebrities and such like. Well, everybody is entitled to their own opinion and, equally, Dimbleby is entitled to do whatever he wants with his body. Good luck to him.

Anyway, tattoos are pretty ubiquitous now. Men and women, sports stars, rock stars, actors and actresses, they all sport them these days and Britain is said to be among the most tattooed nations in the world. Wasn’t it ever thus? The great Roman general, Julius Caesar himself, remarked upon the fierce painted natives when he first crossed the Channel way back in 55BC – and that was just the women!

 Personally, I couldn’t care less whether Dimbleby or anybody else for that matter covers their whole body with tattoos – just so long as, in the majority of cases, they do the decent thing and keep their clothes on!