Octogenarian celebrities are rightly granted quite a bit of leeway when it comes to quirky behavior. When you’re eightysomething, you can talk to empty chairs or, say, disavow then reavow your own upcoming book after you’ve told the Washington Post “its credibility is down the toilet.” You may get some eyerolls, sure, but you’re unlikely to seriously tarnish your legacy.
But the public’s magnanimity toward elderly celebs is about to be seriously tested. Dame Judi Dench has acquired a tattoo that reads “CARPE DIEM.”
“That’s my motto,” she told Surrey Life magazine. “Seize the day.” The tattoo was an 81st birthday gift from her daughter, who, Dench incorrectly claimed, is “wonderful with surprises.” The revelation was part of a feature story that included a photo shoot of Dench and a squirrel.
Dench’s new tattoo is small, and it is on the inside of her wrist. She had previously considered getting an Indian symbol, “which supposedly represents life and love and everything,” but she wisely shied away from it in case she was “being set up—it might be unbelievably rude.”
The mere fact that Dench has gotten a tattoo should not be too distressing. It is 2016, and body art is thoroughly mainstream. Members of Congress—including former Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter and former Democrat Sen. Jim Webb—have tattoos. Helen Mirren and Victoria Beckham and Susan Sarandon have tattoos. Samantha Cameron, who is married to outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron, has a little blue dolphin inked on her ankle.
No, the surprising thing about Dench’s tattoo is merely that she opted for such a hackneyed banality. “Carpe diem” is such a cliché that it is on seemingly every list of clichés and of cliché tattoos. Saying it is a cliché is itself a cliché. “Everyone knows someone with a Carpe Diem tattoo,” a blogger for Bustle wrote last year. “Everyone.” You might think the high-falutin’ types who know Dame Judi Dench would be exempt from that sweeping “everyone,” but now she and her chums are officially part of the great mass of humanity.
Then again, perhaps by age 81 one has moved on from worrying whether something one loves is cliché. Life is short, after all, and it grows shorter every day. There comes a time to cast hesitation aside and just do the thing you’ve always wanted to do. As Dame Judi Dench might say, well … you know.
