Kaye Adams has opened up about getting her first tattoo aged 60 in honour of her late mum.
The Loose Women panellist, who turned 60 in December, got the sweet inking to pay tribute to her mum and says it's ironic that she "probably wouldn't like it". Kaye visited Black Dot Tattoo in Glasgow last month and got the special note 'over twenty one' tattooed on her arm in memory of her mum Cathie, who would never tell anyone what age she was.
Speaking to The Mirror, Kaye explains: “Although I’ve done it for her, the irony is she’d have absolutely killed me and told me to act my age! She is not going to be looking down and smiling, she’ll be shaking her fist, but I think it would be fake outrage and deep down she’d be proud too.”
Kaye has previously opened up about lying about her own age, even to her own daughters, as she approached the big 6-0 milestone. She opened up about it on the ITV talk show, and said that she had now come clean about being 10 years older than she previously admitted - and said it was "bonkers" to ever have fibbed.
The TV personality has always been open about her dread at turning 60. She launched a Podcast called 'How To Be 60' last year in a bid to ease her own nerves, and provide support for other women facing the same milestone.
Speaking about the tattoo, Kaye hailed the Glasgow studio she visited and credited them with making the experience a bit less daunting.
Kaye said: “Every year, until I was 59, I said never, ever would I get a tattoo. I’m not a fan and I wouldn’t get a random one just for the hell of it – a bumble bee, a dolphin. But Over Twenty One suddenly popped into my head.
“I wanted it to look like a nice squiggle from a distance.
“I looked for a card from my mum to copy her handwriting. I couldn’t find anything right, but it’s still my mum’s joined-up handwriting style. The woman who did it couldn’t have been better, because it was so unlike a tattoo studio. This place had a piano in the waiting room and lovely prints.”
Ahead of the trip to the tattoo studio however, Kaye admitted she had some last minute nerves.
She said: “I had a real wobble. I woke up in the night and thought, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing, this is ludicrous!’ But then I thought that it’s good to do different things. I don’t want get stuck as I get older, I want to be able to change.”
The inking might be her biggest tribute to her beloved late mum, as the BBC Radio Scotland presenter revealed she never felt like she could connect as much with jewellery she inherited from her.
She added: “I’ve got one of my mum’s rings and it’s lovely, but it’s just not me. I sometimes look at it and feel quite guilty and almost disloyal and wish that I felt more of a connection with it. So, I guess the tattoo is a jewellery substitute – it’s very much a real reminder of mum and makes me smile.”
Despite having an age-phobia and lying about her real age for years, she is happy about coming clean and embracing herself now. “I feel less of a prisoner of my own insecurities, so that feels like quite a positive thing,” she said.
“And because I’m not so obsessed with the number, it does make me focus more on getting the most out of day-to-day life. Like the tattoo, I really hope there will be other things that I do that are out of character or unpredictable.”
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