Dame Judi Dench had ‘carpe diem’ tattooed on her wrist as a present for her 81st birthday
The tattoo was a gift from Dame Judi's daughter Finty
DAME Judi Dench has got her first tattoo aged 81.
The iconic actress had "carpe diem" inked on her wrist as a gift for her birthday from her daughter Finty.
She said: "That’s my motto: Seize the day. Finty gave it to me for my 81st birthday – she’s wonderful with surprises.
"Mind you the company of A Winter’s Tale, which I was doing at the time, used to say that it said fish of the day.”
Getting a tattoo has been something the actress - who played M in the Jame Bond franchise - has always wanted to do and last year she revealed her daughter was very encouraging of the idea.
Speaking to Surrey Life, she said: "I am tempted to have a tattoo to mark my birthday. Finty’s very keen on me having one.
"There’s an Indian symbol that I like which supposedly represents life and love and everything.
“One of the cameramen who worked on The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel told me what it meant, but I’m a bit nervous in case I’m being set up… It might be unbelievably rude!”
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Judi has quite the sense of humour and once revealed she had Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein's name temporarily inked on her bottom.
She revealed she joked about getting it done after he cast her as Queen Victoria in the film Mrs Brown.
She said: “He still thinks it’s tattooed. My make-up lady painted it on. He didn’t believe me so I showed him.”
While she is still a regular on our TV and cinema screens, Judi admits her age is catching up with her when it comes to her eyes and she has to undergo treatment every six weeks for macular regeneration.
She explained: “I just want to go on being mobile really and able to do things. I’m not going to be beaten by my eyes for instance.
“I have macular degeneration, which means treatment every six weeks, but you just have to settle for it.
“On my scripts, my font is point-size 22, so you can imagine...if we’re doing a sonnet of 14 lines, all the others will have one page and I’ll have 14.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s a farce, but I’m not going to give in.”
However, she has no plans to slow down and said: "That’s an awful word, retirement. I see it as a step back in a way, a step down.
“And if you give up one thing then it seems to me that you might as well give up another, and so on, when it’s much better to keep the mind active.";
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