To me, tattoos are one of those love ‘em or hate ‘em things. I’ve seen some very nice ones, and I’ve seen some pretty nasty ones. When it comes to women, I’d just as soon they leave the canvas bare, as it were, but that’s probably a generational thing.

Whether you like them or not, though, the one thing we can agree on is that they’re permanent. You shouldn’t go into a tattooing session on a whim, and you ought to have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting inked permanently onto your hide. Apparently, for at least one Hollywood starlet a good Italian dictionary might help, too.

In my mind, you can separate out all the tattoos that women get into three classes: artistic, trampy and unfortunate. Artistic tattoos are the little stars and butterflies, trampy are the ass-crack ones that serve to remind you who you’re doing from behind, and unfortunate are the ones that make you think, “what the hell was she thinking?” Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie are the reigning queens of the unfortunate tattoo, but there’s a new competitor on the scene – and apparently, she’s illiterate.

Hayden Panetierre was best knows as being Paris Hilton’s underage party buddy until she got her role in “Heroes”. That was enough to set her for life, so now she travels the world, saving dolphins and hanging out in Cannes. It was at the recent film festival where paparazzi shots of her flank revealed a brand new – and most unfortunate – tattoo. It’s in the form of a sentence running down her left side from shoulder blade to butt cheek – if she’s lying naked on her tummy, you’ll have no trouble reading it. It’s in Italian, and translates as “live without regret” – and admirable sentiment to be sure. Problem is, they got it wrong …

The Heroes starlet and sometime singer has no doubt spent a lifetime spelling out the preponderance of vowels in her last name, but she seems to have been less careful in directing her tattooist.

Panettiere, 19, got inked late last year but it was not until she lay out on the yacht that we could read the elaborate script. Vivere senza rimipianti, it reads, with an extra ‘i’ in rimpianti. The phrase is Italian for “live without regret”, but one cannot help imagining she would be feeliing a liittle of the stuuff.

Let’s face it – nothing says “I’m a dumbass” quite like a misspelt tattoo.

I’ve often wondered about some of the tats I see, particularly the preponderance of chick ink in the form of Chinese or Japanese symbols. Chances are the girl has no idea what it really means, and had to trust the artist to tell them. Makes you wonder how many girls are out there with tats they think mean “strong and powerful,” but actually translate to “cheap and slutty”?