Rihanna's tattoo looks like a dead pigeon under her breasts

Rihanna's tattoo looks like a dead pigeon under her breasts

Lovely photographs of Rihanna ­frolicking in the sunshine in a bikini that is so small you could almost use it as dental floss.

But why has she got what looks like a dead pigeon tattooed under her breasts?

We should all be grateful to 25-year-old Rihanna for constantly reminding us of the folly of body art â€" or “rubbish tattoos”, as we used to call them.

Putting a giant tattoo on a body like Rihanna’s is like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa.

Katherine Jenkins is in it for the long run

I’m not quite sure why ­Katherine Jenkins gets so much stick.

Envy? Spite? Malice?

At Lady Thatcher’s funeral, in a congregation largely stuffed with decrepit old men who you thought died in the Nineties, she was a ray of sunshine.

At the London Marathon, coming so soon after the horrors of Boston, Katherine was a reassuring and heartwarming presence.

It took all kind of guts to run the London Marathon this year. Kath erine Jenkins has that quiet kind of bravery in spades.

And after running 26 miles she still looked better than most of us do before running 26 miles.

A grand public event doesn’t feel quite right without the smiling presence of Katherine Jenkins.

The woman is more than a star. She is a London landmark.

Stub it out, Simon

Simon Cowell, 53, is trying to kick his 40-a-day smoking habit.

He is wasting his time with those electronic cigarettes, which reinforce the habit of smoking and will never get him over the oral fixation that every smoker has.

It’s not easy giving up smoking.

Simon should try hypnotherapy and watching a loved one die of lung cancer.

Worked for me.

* More from Tony Parsons' column here.