The Tattoos of Cheryl Cole

X Factor judge Cheryl Cole may be only twenty-seven years old, but she's already got a good start on a tattoo collection. Her personal body art style is that standard Western-style collection, meaning she's got a variety of personal designs scattered all over her body without any overall defining aesthetic or pattern guiding the artwork or layout.

One tattoo which may not stay on her body much longer is the "Mrs. C" tattooed across the nape of her neck. A remnant of a marriage that no longer exists, rumors continue to ebb and flow that the singer is contemplating having the wording lasered off. Don't be surprised if some new ink takes its place as laser removal very rarely results in clear, blank skin. More often than not, the only thing that truly hides the faint traces of the former tattoo is fresh tattooing.

Most of her artwork is located on the lower half of her torso. A butterfly with some tribal flourishes spans her lower back. In late November 2010, tabloids excitedly produced pictures showing new ink around this older design, but from the glimpses caught when her shirt rode up, it was unclear just what the new design was, or if it descended all the way down her left buttock to join up with the tattoo that resides there. A few upskirt shots have shown that some part of the newest work may wrap all the way down onto her upper left thigh.

That ink won't be all on its own as Cheryl has a barbed wire tattooed that wraps all the way around her upper right thigh. This design also features a rose in with the wire. The last piece of skin art shows just how much tattoo times have changed. Ms. Cole has a tribal piece on the outside edge of her right hand, which runs almost from the heel of her hand to her pinky finger. Erroneously described as a Maori design, it actually doesn't resemble anything that might be connected to the traditional New Zealand tattoo style. It's just a common, garden-variety, modern blackwork design.

With a few of these tattoos being added in just the last year, it seems Ms. Cole's skin art collection has just begun. One of the more interesting things noted was that when her figure was added to Madame Tussad's Wax Museum, it was without the tattoos.