94-Year-Old Hilda West Gets Her First Tattoo, Making Her One Of The Oldest People To Get Tattooed In The UK

While Hilda West had always wanted a tattoo, now the 94-year-old has taken the dive — as well as the name — to be the oldest person to get tattooed in the United Kingdom.

West visited a tattoo shop, Ink on Skinz Tattoo Studio, near her care home in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. She had the initials of her late husband Ernest and late son David tattooed on the inside of her wrist, by Matty Gardner. Gardner did the tattoo for free.

Married for 70 years, West asked her care-takers at Castle Brook Care Home to arrange the tattoo, as Ernest’s birthday would have been this month. West wanted to do something special to honor him, along with memorializing their son.

“I didn’t feel any pain, he was very good. I’m very happy with it and I’m glad I had it done,” West said in a Metro UK article. “I’m very proud of them. I look at them every day and think of my husband and son.”

She adds that she isn’t going to stop with the initials. “I want a butterfly or peacock done next.”

Gardner, who runs Ink on Skinz, said he had tattooed older people, but not someone as old as Hilda West.

”It was all over in 20 minutes,” he said. “She handled it better than some of the bodybuilders I’ve tattooed.”