Our fifth Worst Celebrity Tattoo is another which will happily fade in to memory.

Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg had four large tattoos, including this bizarre number – his initials, surname and date of birth emblazoned across his shoulder. Why he ever thought this was a good idea is beyond us, perhaps it was a by-product of his drug taking past.

These days, Mr Wahlberg is a family man and has decided to ditch all of his tattoos, having them removed with laser treatment, we’re not sure if he’s using the same clinic as Megan Fox. Having been told he’d need 8-10 treatments to remove his tattoos, but has had over 30 so far and some remains are still hanging on. He describes the treatments as like being splashed with hot bacon fat and much more painful than having the tattoo applied.

Take this as a warning – if while removal techniques do exist and are the best they’ve ever been, they do hurt and can take much longer than even experts predict. Also bear in mind Mr Wahlberg can afford the very best in removal treatment, so his may be quicker than yours would be for the same size tattoo.

Our final worst celebrity tattoo design (hey, it was a bank holiday weekend, and 6 days was good enough for God, yeah?) Here’s a real classic from ‘Jackass’ star Steve-O.

The main thought that appeared in our mind when seeing the tattoo across Steve-O’s back was… Why? Why on earth would you have a portrait of yourself tattooed on your own back?

We can only think it was an interaction between Mr O’s ego and psychological problems, caused by drug use.

Mr O has a large number of tattoos, mainly smaller ones. Should he ever decide to get them removed, we think he could be stuck with this back one. It’s huge, so probably best just left in place. Hopefully his future self will be happy to live with the design.

Of all the dodgy celebrity tattoos that we’ve seen, this wins for sheer, unbelievable ego. We’re still hoping it will be revealed as a big prank on the media.

Another Worst Celebrity Tattoo Design for you, this time on Dennis Rodman’s back.

Mr Rodman is an ex-basketball star and either has a great sense of humour, or is having a long public battle with mental illness, depending on who you listen to. He has a large number of tattoos, but the one we’re focussed on here is the large winged lady with… shaft… covering most of his back.

There’s too much wrong here to list everything: the porn-star fashion, the style of the wings? Horns? Not fitting the style of the model. The previously mentioned… shaft. About the best thing you can say about this one is, he doesn’t have to look at it in the mirror!

Day three of our week of the Worst Celebrity Tattoo Designs, and it’s a cheeky one: Cher’s bottom, with wings.

As a design, it’s kind of fine – flowery wings? Could be tasteful. But on a butt? That’s what you really want to see when you see wings, either a strip of cloth separating them, or worse… nothing separating them. Really, if you’re going to go for this sort of tattoo design, at least be sensible and have them on your back.

Day two of our week of the Worst Celebrity Tattoo Designs, and we say hello and goodbye to Megan Fox’s Marilyn Munro tattoo.

Ms Fox had the tattoo of Marilyn’s face applied to her arm when she was eighteen and now, seven years later, has decided it attracts ‘negative energy’ as Marilyn allegedly suffered from bi-polar disorder (AKA manic depression.)

Ms Fox has had at least two sessions of laser removal and the face is noticeably lighter, but unfortunately far from completely removed. Reportedly, Ms Fox has not been enjoying the laser removal, claiming it hurts much more than receiving the tattoo did.

Please, if you’re eighteen and thinking of getting your first tattoo, don’t make the mistake Megan Fox did. Think long and hard about the design, perhaps get a temporary design first as a test, and think about where it is on your body and what you’ll do about it if you decide you don’t like it in the future.

This week we’ll be showcasing the worst tattoos currently sported by celebrities. These are people who should know better, but ego or addiction to ink has got the better to them.

First up is Tommy Lee.

It’s difficult to know where to start with Mr Lee. He’s pretty much a walking example of why you shouldn’t decorate your body without a solid plan. Independently, some of the pieces of art are beautiful, but they’re rubbing up against things like “Mayhem” scrawled across his torso, and scrollwork across his back. Together, they look like a hotch-potch, and are so extensive nothing is ever going to be able to fix it.

If you must get yourself tattooed, and know you’ll want a lot of them, please: think ahead. Try to rein in your enthusiasm and plan for how you’ll look when everything is done, don’t just pull willy-nilly from the catalogue.

Actress & pop star Kelly Osbourne is having two of her tattoos removed. She tweeted from a removal consultation that she was scared by some of the equipment, but having talked of her regrets at having some of her tattoos in the past it seems she’s now ready to try to have them removed.

There are a wide range of tattoo removal techniques, and given that Ms Osbourne can afford to visit the very best of clinics we’re sure she’ll be having laser treatment from expert professionals. Even so, there’s a chance she won’t be able to remove the tattoos completely and may end up with scarring where they are. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen and she gets the results she wants.

Queried by fans about why she wanted to get rid of some of her tattoos, she replied “would you want tinkerbell above your ass crack? As of right now I’m only getting rid of 2 stupid ones!”

To prevent tattoo regret, we strongly recommend a “try before you etch” policy – use some temporary designs to see what a tattoo will look like on you for a while before getting something you might want to remove later. It doesn’t mean your taste won’t change in the future, it’s just to help you be sure about your decision and not get a design you know you’ll feel stuck with.

Recently the Duchess of Cornwall received a henna tattoo on an official visit to Tanzania. She was assured the tattoo would only last a couple of days, but nine days later the remnants were still on her hand, making for some embarrassment at official functions.

If you’re thinking of getting a temporary tattoo, whether it’s for a party, to try out a design for a permanent tattoo, or because you don’t want to cause an international incident by refusing, you have to main options:

A henna tattoo soaks special ink in to your skin. These are not permanent, but do last for many days before the skin’s natural replenishment removes all the stained cells. There are various ways to encourage the henna to disperse, if Camilla was reading the various message boards and Facebook posts discussing her problem, she will have seen recommendations of scrubbing the area with toothpaste or baby shampoo. These may help accelerate the removal, or bleach some of the colour out of the ink, but really the key is patience.

As your skin naturally sheds and is replaced, the henna will go with it. Permanent tattoos place the pigment deep under the skin, where it sits in scar tissue and doesn’t get disturbed. The heena ink is on the surface areas, so will disappear in a short time, although not a couple of days; a week or two would be more likely. This wait may not be short enough if you need to be glad handing the great and the good of the aristocracy daily.

If you need a temporary tattoo you can properly control, the answer is to have one applied via a transfer, like the ones we sell. They’re quick to apply, come in a huge number of different designs, and you can remove them whenever you want with a little baby oil. This means Camilla could wear a Christina Aguilera sacred scroll to the graffiti club opening one day, then easily remove it for a breakfast meeting with the Armenian ambassador the next morning. No toothpaste required.

Tribute acts love the stars they mimic they’ll go to almost any lengths to copy their favourite performer. If they also make a living from looking like the star, it becomes even more important to copy them as closely as possible.

But what if the act you love gets a tattoo?

Many pop stars have gained some ink over the years, and if you’re their tribute act, maybe you feel that you need to too. But if you have a day job which will frown on a new tattoo, or you find that hey, that’s just one step too far for you, what do you do?

With Amy Winehouse seemingly adding tattoos between every photo opportunity, tribute act Dana DeLorenzo needed a way to complete her amazing look without needing to visit her local tattoo parlour. Dana has the voice, the hair, the moves and the make up, and thanks to Tattoo Fashion she now has the tattoos to match Amy Winehouse, temporarily.

If you’ve wondered whether our temporary tattoos can look as good as an actual tattoo, I suggest you check out the picture of Dana below, and on her website. You can see they’re just as good as the real thing, without the worry that you’ll change your mind about having them later.

Keeping up with Robbie

When Robbie Williams gained a Maori inspired tattoo on his shoulder and ‘mother’ and ‘iloveu’ in an Old English typeface down his forearms, tribute act Danny Lowry needed an alternative to going under the needle. Having all the tattoos Robbie sports added to his body would have been a major pain for Danny, but he discovered our Robbie Williams temporary tattos and hasn’t looked back.

Check out Danny’s homepage and tell us you can see a difference between this and the real thing? He’s got Robbie’s act down to a ‘T’ and with our help, he’s got the look without the permanent marks too. When Danny wants to go back to being just Danny, he’s just a drop of baby oil away from his original skin, no Rock DJ-style peeling required!

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.

Image credit.

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!