1) Celtic band: made in 1996, in Los Angeles, before the Spice Girls release their first single. It comes in a full circle around her right biceps meaning “tribe submission”. Melanie chose the Celtic style in honour of her Scottish descent.

2) Girl Power: in Japanese writing, Kanjii alphabet, it means “woman” and “strength”, in other words, Girl Power! It’s situated above the Celtic band, on her right arm. It took only 6 minutes to be done, in early 1997. Her mother has the same tattoo.

3) Celtic Cross: choosing the Celtic design one more time, Melanie had a cross done on her left arm, meaning “protection”. It was made in December 1997.

4) Angel: rumours say that this tattoo has something to do with the Robbie Williams’ song Angels, as he had been Mel’s latest well-known boyfriend at the time. But Melanie claims it was made in honour of her grandparents who had passed away from cancer. It’s situated on her belly and it was done in 1998.

5) Lotus Flower: it's situated at the end of her spine. The flower means “an unreachable education by the human being” and it has a Tibetan writing above, meaning “detained or castigated”. Made with the help of Melanie’s mate Anthony Kiedis, front man of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. He took her to the tattooist during the Spice Girls' American tour, in 1998.

6) Phoenix: a phoenix bird in flames situated on her back between her shoulders. That was the first coloured tattoo and the first one done by a female tattooist. It was done on August 4th , 1999, after the recording sessions of Mel’s first solo album, Northern Star. It took 3 hours to be done. According to the Chinese culture, the bird represents the female energy and rebirth.

7) Dragon: multicoloured Chinese dragon in flames, situated on her right calf. It took 2 hours to be done on November 24th, 1999, by the tattooist Louis Molloy who was impressed by Melanie’s behavior: “she didn’t moan once!”. According to the Chinese culture, the dragon represents the man and Melanie had it done after learning that the dragon and the phoenix together brings the balance between male and female energies.

8) Northern Star: simple little star situated on her right hand. It was done in March, 2000, just before Never Be The Same Again hit the number 1 in UK.

9) Happiness: situated on her left wrist, it’s in Tibetan writing. Melanie had it done in 2000, when she was suffering from depression.

11) This Time Star: situated on her left forearm, it's a simple star, bigger than the one on her right hand. It represents This Time, the forth solo album. It was done on August 13th, 2007, by the tattooist Ronan at Hanky Panky in Amsterdam (same place where Melanie had her wrists' tattoos done). It's the first one after almost 7 years since the making of the wrists' tattoos.