Did you Know this About These Celebrity Tattoos?

Tattoos are increasingly popular as a way of showing one's commitment to a loved one, due in no small part to their permanence.

There are countless tales of young lovers getting each others' names tattooed on one another in situations where they cannot practically get married, thus demonstrating a monogamous commitment to stay together come what may.

Even with the advent of laser surgery the removal of a tattoo is still an expensive and long-winded process, so if you're getting someone's name tattooed somewhere intimate you would be well advised to make sure that you both feel the relationship will endure.

A future partner will never, no matter how brave a face they may put on, be comfortable with you carrying a reminder of a previous relationship - one which you once valued enough to mark yourself permanently.

Famously, the actor Johnny Depp got a tattoo while dating his then sweetheart Winona Ryder.

It was on his right bicep and bore the legend "Winona Forever".

The relationship did not endure, and Depp's present wife Vanessa Paradis may laugh outwardly when she sees the ink, now changed to read "Wino Forever" in honour of Depp's fondness for wine. Inwardly, however, she would need to be a very strong woman not to cringe a little.

One case in which you can feel confident about a name tattoo is when you become a parent. That child will always be your son or daughter, so a permanent imprint of their name is something that you need never be embarrassed by - although you might find yourself looking at it differently the first time they get into some kind of trouble.

Gothic subculture has been in existence since the early 1980s, when the Goth music scene sprang up in the North of England out of the dying punk scene.

Against the odds, it has persisted for what is now nearly thirty years, in the face of occasionally hostile and often mocking treatment in the media and in society.

There is a feeling that Goth is a movement whose time has now come, especially in the wake of the "Nu-metal" scene which had a large following on both sides of the Atlantic at the start of the century.

Along with black clothes, hair and make-up and often artificially pale faces, along with a predominance of leather, gothic fashion includes tattoos - and these tattoos, interestingly, are a part of gothic fashion which has made the jump to the mainstream before any other.

Stars such as Eminem and David Beckham have been known to rock a gothic tattoo, although there are as yet no reports claiming that they're whiting up and listening to My Dying Bride.

What constitutes a gothic tattoo? Well, in this day and age, it's pretty much whatever the media decides is a gothic tattoo, apparently. But the main uniting factors include elements of religious and fantasy imagery, faeries and angels being particularly popular.

As an armband tattoo, a representation of a thorned rose vine is the most popular, which has echoes of the crown of thorns forced onto Jesus' head as he was crucified.

The crucifix itself plays a large part in gothic tattoo imagery - in a lot of cases an ironic appropriation of a broadly Christian image by people who have little time for Christianity itself.

Cher became famous for her many tattoos, long before they were fashionable among women in Hollywood.

Among them were a large butterfly and floral design on her buttocks, later imitated by androgynous Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns; a flowing necklace on her left upper arm with three charms hanging on it an Egyptian ankh, a cross and a heart, a kanji on her right shoulder (Chinese 'li'; Japanese 'chikara'; meaning 'power'); a small cluster of Art Deco crystals on her inner right arm; a black orchid design just above the crease of her right thigh; and a chrysanthemum on her left ankle.

Media reports in recent years have indicated that Cher has since committed to having most of her tattoos removed, and the process has apparently been under way.

Some pictures from her most recent concert tour have shown blank skin where some of the smaller tattoos once were. She no longer has a necklace on her left arm or the Japanese symbol on her right arm.

Kelly Osbourne

Kelly sports many tattoos all over her body, including a skull-and-crossbones design on both feet, small angel wings on her back, an outlined star on the back of her neck, a tiny pink heart on her hip, a ship's anchor on the back of her left forearm, a tiny pink heart on her little finger (the same as ex-boyfriend Bert McCracken), a padlock and key with the word "Daddy" above it, a musical keyboard on the back of her right forearm, and the name of her brother, Jack, on her wrist.

Angelina Jolie

Jolie's numerous tattoos have been the subject of much media attention and have often been addressed by interviewers. Jolie stated that, while she is not opposed to film nudity, the large number of tattoos on her body has forced filmmakers to become more creative when planning nude or love scenes.

Make-up has been used to cover up the tattoos in many of her productions. Jolie currently has thirteen known tattoos, among them the Tennessee Williams quote "A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages", which she got together with her mother, the Arabic language phrase meaning (strength of will), the Latin proverb "quod me nutrit me destruit" (what nourishes me destroys me), and a Yantra prayer written in the ancient Khmer script for her son Maddox.

She also has six sets of geographical coordinates on her upper left arm indicating the birthplaces of her children. Over time she covered or lasered several of her tattoos, including "Billy Bob", the name of her former husband Billy Bob Thornton, a Chinese character for death (%u6B7B), and a window on her lower back; she explained that she removed the window, because, while she used to spend all of her time looking out through windows wishing to be outside, she now lives there all of the time.

Professional soccer icon David Beckham has had his name on people's lips since forever, with the reasons for this ranging from his epic dead-ball striking abilities, through his occasionally cringeworthy comments to the press, right up to his celebrity lifestyle and marriage to ex-pop star Victoria Beckham.

The first truly global star to ply his trade in America's MLS, Beckham will not drop off the global media' radar any time soon thanks in no small part to his own media savvy, and his bankability as a subject for press stories.

One almost permanent element in the press attention that is devoted to Beckham is his love of tattoos - an extension of his fashion sense and regarded by some as inextricably linked with his fondness for hip-hop, David's ink makes Eminem look positively restrained.

The number of cultural signifiers alone is quite dizzying, with a crucifix on the back of his neck, Victoria's name (misspelled) in Hindi on his left arm, and not one but two Jewish proverbs - one on each arm.

On the right arm the proverb reads "My son do not forget my teachings, but keep my commands in your heart" and on the left "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine".

This astonishing amount of body art would give the most decorated rapper a run for his money, and it is a collaborative artwork conceived by Beckham and achieved by his personal tattooist Louis Malloy, with Beckham as the canvas (and one that has very little space left to cover).

With his current hiatus in Milan, it remains to be seen whether David Beckham will get more ink done, what it will be, and whether it will be spelt correctly.