The Permanent Marker Industry has announced a significant increase in production following the revelations surrounding the Real Madrid player and England Captain David Beckham’s new tattoo. When the news story hit the UK tabloids, such as the Sun and the Mirror, shares in various marker pen companies rose, and orders from retail outlets rose significantly.

“The reason for this trend,” market analyst Chuck Hankman explained, “Is that every kid in the playground is going to want a tattoo on the back of their neck like David Beckham. Seeing as they are far too young to be getting tattoos in Tattoo parlours they have to opt for the next best thing – to draw it on with permanent marker pen.”

Schools around the nation have urged parents to keep a close eye on their children over the weekend to make sure that their children do not try to draw such a tattoo on themselves or a friend as both tattoos, and permanent marker replications of tattoos are banned in most UK schools.

“Children had better be warned,” Head teacher Keith Wilson told us, “We would treat any such drawing the same as make up – so any child coming in with a tattoo, or a fake replica, would be asked to remove it.”

When asked how he intended to get children to remove any real tattoos they might have been able to get done if they lied about their age Mr Wilson explained the school has “some very strong acids in our chemistry department.”

Whilst the popularity of Beckham’s new tattoo is yet to be determined, it seems that the newspaper editors seem to dislike it. Beckham has been branded ‘a yob’ and ‘irresponsible’ by the tabloids for getting his latest tattoo – making it easy for the readers to empathise with him.

Whatever the opinion of Beckham’s new tattoo, it has managed to push the over reported ‘condom flour bomb’ attack on Tony Blair story off of the front page – but only to have replaced it with a story of even less significance as far as most people are concerned. Chuck Hankman disputes this view point:

“Beckham’s new tattoo is extremely important. The Permanent Maker boom is only the tip of the iceberg. Tattoo parlours will experience similar growth, and all the teenage boys will want to replace their old posters of David Beckham with an up to date one. Some will even want to replace their David Beckham football kit to reflect the changes – but only the dense ones who don’t realise the tattoo is not part of the club strip.

“It might be dull, tedious news that should be of little interest. But does it matter? Yes it does.”