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What do you ink? Dame Judi Dench plans tattoo to mark her 80th birthday

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star once pretended she had Harvey Weinstein's name tattooed on her bottom

Matilda Battersby
Wednesday 28 January 2015 10:58 EST
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What do you ink? Dame Judi at 80
What do you ink? Dame Judi at 80 (Getty Images)

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Dame Judi Dench would like to mark her birthday by getting a tattoo. But the Oscar-winning actress - who turned 80 last month - is worried that the Indian symbol she'd like to have inked "might be unbelievably rude".

She is being encouraged to get the tattoo by her daughter, the actress Finty Williams, and has previously teased Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein by pretending she had his name on her bottom.

"There's an Indian symbol that I like which supposedly represents life and love and everything," she said in an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine.

"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."

In the March edition of the magazine, which goes on sale today, she also spoke about how she celebrated her big birthday. She said: "All I wanted was the people I love around me, I didn't want a fuss. The words old, eight-oh and retire are banned in my house."

The star - who bowed out of her recurring role as M in the James Bond movies after 2012's Skyfall - said she has no plans to stop her acting career.

"The thought of putting my feet up doesn't appeal at all - no no, no! I've got plenty of time for that at weekends or on odd days off. The prospect of no work on the horizon makes me a bit edgy. I have no particular ambitions - I just want to be employed!"

Additional reporting by PA

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