It\'s my body. I\'ll do what I want with it! That\'s the South Beds consensus about getting tattoos. Their views support results of a survey showing body art\'s growing popularity.Leanne Seeley is a tattoo artist at Terrapin in Luton\'s Arndale Centre and already has no fewer than 23 tattoos, but she\'s not stopping there. \"I knew when I got my first tattoo done that I wanted to have lots,\" she said. \"I like to think of my body as a blank canvas, so eventually I want to be covered.\"\n\nLeanne says that anyone thinking about getting a tattoo should go for it.\n\n\"I don\'t think you\'ll ever regret them when you\'re older because most of our generation have them so we\'ll all look the same,\" she said. \n\n\"All of my tattoos mean something to me and I feel quite boring when I don\'thave them on show.\"\n\nBut co-worker Mark Watson warns people to think carefully about what they get done.\n\n\"It\'s worrying when young people come in and want to get one done just because everyone else is,\" he said. \"I would advise anyone thinking about getting a tattoo to talk it through with the artist first and ask to see their portfolio of work so you won\'t be disappointed.\"\n\nHe also encourages people to think about where on their body they get their tattoo. \"I turned a girl away who wanted a butterfly on her hand because it was her first tattoo and I didn\'t think she should have it on a partof her body she couldn\'t hide, as people do judge. \n\n\"But she got it done elsewhere and ended up getting sacked from her job as an apprentice.\"\n\nThe survey showing that tattoos are not quite as taboo as they once were also found that people are still shy about telling others they\'ve been inked up.About 15 per cent of people have a body art design they\'ve never revealed to anyone else, researchers found.\n\nWhen questioned on temporary tattoos or body art, more than half of those surveyed said they\'d wear a temporary tattoo for a special occasion.\n\nTwenty-five per cent of women said they\'d most like to have a design on their back, followed by their ankle (14 per cent). For men, the arm was the favourite spot for a design with 11 per cent.\n\n\"Body art seems to hold a guilty pleasure for many people who enjoy having it, but don\'t want to tell anyone about it,\" said a spokesman for the firmwhich commissioned the poll.\n\nFind out more about body art at www.terra-pin.co.uk\n\nVideo report by Natalee Hazelwood\n\nLast Updated: 31 October 2007 10:47 AM bedfordshire, body, decoration, ink, luton, lutontoday, needle, tattoo, terrapin, today