After months and months of build up, the World Cup is just one week away from the eagerly awaited final, So far we’ve been deafened by the Vuvuzela’s, shocked at how rubbish the ball is and uncontrollably disappointed that England failed to progess past the last 16.

Even while we’ve been watching football in the office, we’re constantly on the look out for tattoos, and as our regular readers and tattoo enthusiasts across the land already know, football and dodgy tattoos go hand in hand!

As there’s been so many tattoo’s on display already, we thought that some of our favourites deserved a special mention. So, here are our top five tattoos from South Africa 2010 so far:

1. Kevin Prince Boateng
Boateng plays his international football for Ghana, despite making 41 appearances for the German national side at youth level. His brother Jerome is also in South Africa, playing for Germany, which, if you ask us, is a little weird!

Boateng has caught the eye of many tattoo fans with his collection of colourful ink work. To mark his name, the player has a crown tattooed on the side of his neck, as well as having both arms covered in some pretty impressive tribal designs.

2. Diego Maradona
The Argentina manager has kept most of his tattoos covered up, with the help knock-off designer suits, so far this world cup. However, had the Argies gone on to win the competition, Maradona had promised to run through the streets of Buenos Aires butt naked to celebrate!

Sadly Messi and co won’t be lifting the trophy in July, but some of the residents of Buenos Aires might not be so disappointed, as now, they won’t be exposed to Maradona’s ink work (and everything else), including his famous Che Guevara and Fidel Castro tattoos.

3. Wayne Rooney
Proud Englishman Rooney has a couple of tattoos, including the famous Stereophonic’s album title ‘Just enough education to perform’ scribbled down his lower right arm. Wayne wears his heart on his sleeve when he plays football, and to prove he’s such a proud Englishman, the Man United ace has had the flag of St. George inked on his left bicep. Shame he wasn’t as patriotic on the field this time round…

4. Jermain Defoe
Defoe is famous for falling out of night clubs with page three girls, scoring goals for Spurs and having some pretty impressive sleeve tattoos. Despite Defoe’s late night antics in the West End, he is actually a keen family man. To mark his paternal commitments, he’s had the names of his mum, gran and late brother, Jade, incorporated into his tattoos.

5. Tim Cahill
Australian football has never really had too much shout about. However, due to his great performances for Everton, stunning goals and great tattoos, Tim Cahill has become a quite the hero for the Socceroos.

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Cahill has an impressive Maori inspired design running half way down his right arm, and to show his commitment to the Merseyside blues, Cahill actually has ‘E.F.C’ embedded in the design.

If you’re getting ready to play football or simply watching the World Cup on the telly, why not check out our cool football temporary tattoos to help you get psyched up for the next big game!

Last week we had a look at some of the less tasteful football tattoos that we’ve come across on our tattoo inspired travels. Just to even things up a little bit we thought that this week we would show you some of the more thoughtful and inspiring football related tattoos that we’ve seen.

1) Fernando Torres
El Nino, as he is affectionately known by Liverpool and Spain fans, has quite a few tattoos, but the major one that stands out to us is the number ‘9’ on his lower right arm. Torres has successfully worn the number nine shirt for his country, as well as for both Liverpool and Athletico Madrid. So it’s safe to assume that this design isn’t going to grow out of favour with the superstar Spaniard when he gets old!

2) Marco Materazzi
After famously being head butted in the 2006 World Cup final by Zinedine Zidane, Marco Materazzi and Italy eventually went on to win the game on penalties to become World Cup champions. To mark his achievement (of winning the World Cup and not winding up Zizou) Materazzi acquired a World Cup trophy design along with the date of the final on his left thigh.

3) Daniel Agger
Although Daniel Agger’s tattoos are not as distinctive or football related as the others in this list, he gets an honourable mention for being the only footballer we can think of that is also a qualified tattoo artist. Rumour has it that at the end of last season, when Liverpool were chasing Manchester United for the tile, the young Dane promised his fellow team mates special tattoos to mark their achievement if they managed to win the title. Unfortunately for Agger and his fellow red scousers they finished second, just behind United. It looks like it’s going to be a while till Stevie G and his chums get the chance to get inked by the hard man defender.

4) Diego Maradona
The Argentinean football legend has regularly praised his fellow country man Che Guevara as being one of the biggest inspirations in his life, even going as far as saying that along with god he was the main reason he is alive today. To mark his admiration, the pint sized football hero has Che’s iconic face imprinted on his right bicep.

5) Craig Bellamy
Proud Welshman Craig Bellamy is known throughout football for his short temper and aggressive playing style. Just in case anyone who wasn’t sure of his love for all things related to his homeland, the Man City forward decided to get a tattoo showing one of his many Welsh hero’s, medieval nationalist Owain Glyndwr, midway though a battle, on his right arm.

If you’re starting to get the World Cup fever already, why not have a look at our football temporary tattoos to get yourself psyched up for the big tournament in June!

Ah don’t you just love celebrities and their tattoos, particularly when they use their body art to express themselves to a loved one. Historically, there’s been a whole host of celebs who’ve got a high profile tat on or around Valentines, which divides opinion, and in some cases, the actual relationship.

We’ve compiled the top five celebrities who’ve etched their skin in devotion to their better halves – and possible regretted it soon after. Enjoy!

1) David Beckham
In late 2008, Becks decided to get a black rose on his arm in tribute to wife Posh. As much as their relationship seemingly blossomed soon after, it did wilt for a while when Golden Balls moved to America…

2) Peaches Geldof
Clearly sharing an insatiable taste for tattoos like her mother, Paula Yates, Ms Geldof equally enjoys the attention that comes with it. Last year she caused momentary intrigue after having ‘ex-valentine’ etched on her shoulder, relating to numerous undisclosed ex’s. The intrigue lasted for about 24 hours.

3) Barbie
Ok, admittedly Barbie isn’t a celebrity in the conventional sense, but this iconic doll has been around long enough to warrant the term. Early last year, which also coincided with her 50th birthday, Barbie had her long standing lover’s name, Ken, tattooed on her lower back. Unfortunately Ken later ran off with Cindy and they’re now living in Las Vegas.

4) Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is synonymous with two things: men and tattoos. She also likes to occasionally combine the two with disregard for the outcome. One notable case was her ‘Billy Bob’ tat, in dedication of her lover; yep you guessed it, Billy Bob, in 2006. After their acrimonious split a few month’s later, however, Angelina did consider removing her arm.

5) Johnny Depp
And finally, the infectious Johnny Depp is partial to the odd tattoo. In 1998 he famously got ‘Winona Forever’ tattooed on his shoulder after getting engaged to Winona Ryder. When they separated just six month’s later, Johnny cleverly altered the tat to ‘Wino Forever’! We’re drink to that.

Check out our superb range of temporary Valentines Tattoos which guarantee fun, as well as minimum public humiliation if your relationship happens to go on the rocks!

When will people learn, eh? In fact, scrap that: when will celebrities learn?! Presently, celebrities are synonymous with tattoos, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the right to apply them to other people.

Cheeky RnB singer Rihanna may think differently after inscribing tattoos to people in New York’s famous tattoo parlour, East Side Ink. The pop princess, who hit the charts last year with her frustratingly catchy record ‘Umbrella’, was visiting her tattooist and friend Bang Bang when he spontaneously requested a tattoo of an umbrella with an ‘R’ under it on his leg. Rihanna obligingly set to work and even enticed two fellow tattooists, Josh Lord and Patrick Conlon, to have permanent tattoos on their bodies too.

Although their tattoos were simple – the number ‘2’ and ‘3’ to indicate Rihanna’s novice experience – it’s emerged that Rihanna has broken the law, and could face three misdemeanour charges; resulting in fines totalling $1800!

Not that Rihanna can’t afford such charges, but a surely a lesson has been learnt: leave tattooing to the professionals. As for singing, well, we’ll let you decide that one!

Check out our great temporary celebrity tattoos for great stocking fillers, or to make that fancy dress party even better!

We all know that celebrities often like to indulge the phrase “if you’ve got it, flaunt it”, but very few escape ridicule when they look online the next morning.

Megan Fox, the American actress and model, however, may be fairly satisfied with what she saw on a host of websites today as she had breakfast. She arrived to the British premiere of ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ at Leicester Square on Monday evening looking typically stunning in her designer black dress, but what the excitable paparazzi really enjoyed were her array of tattoos on show for the world to see.

  

Fox, 23, who has also starred in Bad Boys 2 and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, currently has eight known tattoos, including her fiancés name “Brian” on her lower hip and a picture of Marilyn Monroe’s face on her right forearm (above).

We love Megan Fox and all her tattoos, and particularly the one of Marilyn Monroe. Check out our previous blog posts of people who have good and bad celebrity tattoos.

And, see our Celebrity Tattoos for fantastic temporary designs that all you favourite celebs are sporting!

Pop princess Kylie Minogue won’t be asking herself “Je ne sais pas pour quoi?” after her boyfriend, Andres Velencoso Segura – the Spanish Supermodel – has expressed his love by having her name tattooed below his hip.

   

What she may ask herself, however, is what will happen to the tattoo if and when they break up? A close source to the Aussie singer has retaliated to people commenting on the 10-year age gap, by stating “Andres knows how insecure the 10-year age gap makes her feel and this gesture has really boosted her happiness.”

We certainly hope so. With so many celebrities having tattoos applied to express their undying love and lust to the world, we just hope that Kylie and Andres go the distance, or there could be some “tears on my pillow”. Well, maybe not…

There is rarely a day goes by that a celebrity presents the world with a new tattoo, and one that either causes debate or ridicule!

So, when we heard that Rihanna, the 21-year-old R’n’B singer, has had an image of gun added to her growing collection of tats, we wondered whether it was just a cheap shot at gaining some media attention.

The tattoo, which depicts a gun and is located under her arm on her rib cage, is Rihanna’s fourth and joins an existing Maori design on her right hand and “Shhh” on her finger.

Her tattoo artist, Bang Bang, said: “I really wanted to put it here…she loved ’em! But, Cover Girl wouldn’t have liked it much…and they pay the bills!”

Let’s just hope Rihanna hasn’t shot herself in the foot with this one….(sorry)

We love it at Tattoo Fashion when celebrities get new tattoos, particularly when they hit the headlines.

Peaches Geldof, unruly daughter of Sir Bob, has constantly roused the press with her ample body motifs, and after sunbathing topless on a beach in South America recently, has exposed her full tat portfolio to the world! 

    

The majority of the 20 designs are references to ex-boyfriends and her new addition, the words ‘Ex Valentine’ – relating to old flame Faris Badwan, front man with The Horrors – just reinforces how careful she should be when selecting both men and tattoos in the future!

But, we think as long as she’s happy and enjoys getting tattoos then good on her!

We love Beck’s tattoos here at Tattoo Fashion and we like to keep tabs on any new additions to his body art. His recent tat, however, hasn’t gone down too well in the Beckham household as he allegedly ignored Posh’s appeal not to have anymore.

As Becks was parading his football skills during a training session for AC Milan in Dubai, he was also parading his new biblical proverb design under his left arm which translates: “My son, do not forget my teaching but keep my commands in your heart”. 

    

The latest pictures also display a wing-shaped tattoo on the inside of his upper left arm, and this slightly unclear cherub pattern could be mirroring the same design on his right arm.

Either way, we think his new tats look great – even if a certain ex-Spice Girl disagrees….

One of the original tattoo bad boys, hellion and tabloid treasure; Tommy Lee’s tattoos have always been a work in progress.

Not only partnered with some of the sexiest women on the planet, Tommy Lee’s array of body motifs have equally been a flamboyant affair.

The ex-Motley Crue drummer caused controversy in 1998 when he had a Nazi swastika tattoo drawn on his left arm. He has since had it removed and admitted: “It was something I did and I have no one else to blame.”

It seems Tommy Lee’s tattoos last as long as his relationships these days……