Photos of inked seniors show how body art fares over the passage of time

Standing proud: At 77, Isobel Varley is the most tattooed senior in the world, and she claims she doesn't regret a single one her elaborate inkings

Tattoos, once the ultimate rebel stamp, have become popular and widespread adornments in recent times.

Yet many eager young devotees have pondered, on their way to the tattoo parlor, how they will feel about their inkings once they reach old age.

Actor Johnny Depp, 50, once said: 'My body is my journal and my tattoos are my story' - a sentiment echoed by the proud and seasoned subjects in a series of photos which display how elaborate tattoos appear on senior skin.

One in five U.S. adults now have at least one tattoo, compared to just 16 per cent of the population in 2003, according to the Harris Institute of Research.

For the first time in recorded history, women are slightly more likely to have them than men - and twice as likely to later have them removed - but overall, 86 per cent of those questioned have 'never regretted' their tattoos.

Isobel Varley, 77, Guinness Book of Records 'Most Tattooed Senior in the World' title, waited until her late forties to get her first one but quickly got hooked and has now covered over 76 per cent of her body in tattoos.

Now tat's impressive! For the first time in recorded history, women are slightly more likely to have tattoos than men - as Ms Varley (pictured) proudly displays

Look at me! Larry Happ, 68, competes for the 'Senior Man Largest Tattoo' at a Los Angeles convention

'I understand that there will always be people who don’t like them and I respect that,' she said in an interview
with Big Tattoo Planet.

'In the past there has been a tendency to look down on people with visible ink. This will hopefully change now that more people, particularly women, have them.'

Robert Seibert, 64, from Kentucky, has been accumulating tattoos for over 40 years.

In it for the long haul: 'Bald Bill' is a veteran tattoo artist from Vermont who quit his job at a phone company in 1986 to chase his lifelong passion

'Each [tattoo] is like a certain phase of my life,' he said at a 2012 convention. 'To me it's a picture history of what I have gone through, through the years.'

'Bald Bill' as he likes to be known, is a veteran tattoo artist from Vermont. He quit his job at phone company to become a 'gypsy tattoo artist' and says he has absolutely no regrets about his inkings, and never sees his customers wish they hadn't had them.

Many wear their tattoos as a badge of the experiences they have overcome. Thomas Michenovich is a Pearl Harbor survivor, who got inked in honor of the comrades he lost in the 1941 Japanese attack.

Forever marked: Robert Seibert, 62, from Kentucky, has been accumulating tattoos for over 40 years, and says each one represents 'a certain phase' of his life

In memory: Pearl Harbor survivor Thomas Michenovich (pictured) displays his wartime tattoos; in honor of the comrades who lost their lives

Despite permanent body art enjoying a mainstream (and celebrity) following for the moment, only time will tell whether the popularity of tattoos will endure in society as long as they endure on the skin.

And thanks to modern advances in technology, for those who change their minds, there's always laser removal. 

-Dailymail