Dame Judi Dench celebrates 81st birthday with her first tattoo!

Dame Judi Dench with daughter Finty — (Image credit: Stephen Coke/REX/Shutterstock)

Dame Judi Dench, the grande dame of British acting, has revealed her daughter bought her first ever tattoo for her latest birthday

Dame Judi Dench has been given an unusual 81st birthday present by her daughter – her first ever tattoo.

The actress had the words 'carpe diem' inked on her wrist as a gift from her actress daughter Finty Williams (pictured).

Dame Judi Dench with the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, for The Winter's Tale, at the Olivier Awards 2016 — *(Ian West/PA)*

She told Surrey Life magazine: “That’s my motto: Seize the day. Finty gave it to me for my 81st birthday – she’s wonderful with surprises.

“Mind you, the company of A Winter’s Tale, which I was doing at the time, used to say that it said fish of the day.”

The former James Bond star previously told Good Housekeeping she was contemplating getting an Indian symbol tattooed and has also joked that she would like to have Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s name inked on her bottom.

ame Judi Dench attending the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at the May Fair Hotel — *(Jonathan Brady/PA)*

She told Good Housekeeping: “There’s an Indian symbol that I like which supposedly represents life and love and everything.

“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.”

Dame Judi will soon be seen in Tim Burton’s film Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, which is due for UK release in September.

Dame Judi is not the only veteran actress to desire being etched with ink... Felicity Kendal is a big fan of them.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.