Dita Von Teese's Tattoo Close Call

Dita Von Teese is grateful to her tattoo artist for rejecting a design she once dreamed up - because it would have disfigured her porcelain face.

The burlesque dancer was obsessed with having a star tattooed on her left cheek - but the parlour employees refused and instead agreed to give her a beauty spot in its place.

She explains, "You have to understand I was pretty eccentric. I was always drawing hearts and stars in that spot. I went in thinking I wanted a star there, but they wouldn't do it.

"They were the voice of reason. They were so right."

And Von Teese, who was once married to shock rocker Marilyn Manson, had another idea she now realizes she would have lived to regret.

She adds: "In the early nineties I almost got seams (tattooed) up the back of my legs but I'm so glad I didn't. Can you imagine how hard it would be to match up the seams with real stockings? It would have been a nightmare.

"At that time I was researching everything about the forties, about how during World War Ii women would draw seams on. I thought, 'Wouldn't that be cool?' I had them henna tattooed on, but I never went all the way."