Cheryl, tell me, why do you do this?

The latest issue, in a seemingly ever increasing list, to test my patience was the interest generated by Cheryl Cole masking one awful tramp stamp with an even larger statement of brazen chavdom.

Such was the apparent importance of this body art addition, a mind-boggling 2,500 people were moved to pass comment via the Daily Mail website – a publication that could keep this column in business for years on end.

It baffles me that it could stir such interest and be plastered all over the papers and news bulletins when basically anything else could be considered a more pressing matter.

The only thing more disappointing for Cheryl than the massive adornment on her lower back looking like a massive stick-on transfer you could buy from a newsagent is that it is real and very permanent.

The giant, entwined red roses are not unsightly in themselves – they’re actually well drawn and highly detailed – but it is the sheer size of them on her tiny frame that makes them look completely ridiculous.

I don’t have any tattoos myself, largely because I wouldn’t know what to get emblazoned on my skin for all eternity, or at least until I hated it and opted for laser removal treatment, and more importantly it wouldn’t suit me and I would look like an idiot.

Having said that, they can be very attractive when they’re tastefully done and they can suit a lot of people, but it wouldn’t be for me although more and more people are going through hours of pain under the needle.

Much has been made of Cheryl now having a total of 10 tattoos, which overlooks the main issue that they are all rubbish.

If they looked even half decent there wouldn’t have been this furore and I wouldn’t have fallen into the trap of allowing this to still be news.

There you have my tuppence worth on the debate, when I could have simply typed out ‘Cheryl Cole looks like a chav’ and hit copy and paste until the word limit was reached.