World's Most Tattooed Woman

While most women in their 60s are settling down for a quiet life, Isobel Varley is travelling the world - showing off her tattoos and piercings.

The bubbly woman is almost covered from head to foot with colourful tattoos and has 49 piercings in a number of places, including 16 in her pants area.

She's just returned to her home in Stevenage from a tattoo convention in Switzerland, has two days before flying out to Belgium and appeared on Channel 4's The Salon the previous week. Life is busy for the woman who holds the title as the world's most tattooed senior woman.

"The last tattoo I had was a rose and heart on my forehead yesterday," she said. "I had it done at the convention in Lucerne. It was a little painful, but it looks really nice and I can cover it up with my fringe if I want."

But Isobel didn't start having tattoos until her late 40s in 1986. The mother-of-one finished covering her body with tattoos in 1997 - her favourite is a family of tigers lying on her stomach.

"I went to a tattoo convention and had one tattoo - and then it just went from there. This came about as I was so impressed by the sheer beauty of the tattoos and I found that the people there were ordinary people from all walks of life and were not strange," she said.

But Isobel warned: " If you're going to have one done, you've got to think about it carefully because it's going to last a very long time so you've got to be sure it's what you want.

"Having a tattoo removed is expensive and I think you should only get one done if you're old enough to know what you want for the rest of your life."

The pensioner started having the piercings in 1989 - having her first as an experience so she could write about it.

She has 29 in her ears, two in her nose,one in each nipple, one in her belly button and 16 in various places in her nether regions.

"The most painful is nipple piercing - I've had to have them redone three times for various reasons. The tops of your ears take a long time to heal, but the ones down below heal very fast."
Source: BBC