Great-grandmother gets tattoo of a Butterfly aged 78

AFRIK UPDATE

           ‘She claims 'it makes me feel younger’

 

A great-grandmother had her first tattoo at the age of 78 - a butterfly inked on to her forearm.

Elsie Wilkes, of Barrow, Cumbria, said her daughter dared her to have it done over lunch and she was in the tattoo parlour within hours.

It does make you feel younger,' she said. 'I suppose one of the main reasons I got it is that we don’t have a car anymore, we can’t go on holidays like we used to anymore, we can’t dance like we used to, so what am I going to with myself?'

                                                  

She said she and her husband Harold, 89, who served on the harrowing Arctic Convoys during the Second World War, were slowing down and she needed new things to occupy her time.

'The real reason I went was that my middle daughter dared me to get it done,' added Mrs Wilkes. 'She dared me at dinner-time and by the afternoon I was in there.'

Mrs Wilkes chose her image and a butterfly was drawn on her arm by an artist at All Style Tattoos in Barrow.

'I’m proud of it,' she added. 'You wouldn’t believe it, but I’m actually a very shy person. But I wasn’t going to get one where people couldn’t see it, was I?'

The great-grandmother said she had always liked the idea of getting a tattoo but it simply wasn’t an option for women when she was growing up.

                     

'When I was younger we didn’t have this sort of thing,' she said. 'I always say that if I was young now, I’d either be a goth or one those hippy people.'

While Mrs Wilkes is happy to show off her new artwork now, she was not brave enough to tell her husband her plans until it was too late.

'She came home and it was done,' Mr Wilkes said. 'But I don’t mind, I love her. I wouldn’t swap her for black pudding.'

Despite eagerly waiting for some warm weather so she can better show off the design, Mrs Wilkes said there would be no more tattoos to follow.

'No, this is it,' she said. 'Everybody I’ve shown has liked it - even my elderly neighbours around here.

'My 11-year-old great-grandson likes it the most, though. He told me I was an "awesome nanna" when he saw it.'