Should tattooed ladies be allowed into Ascot?

Joanna Southgate's heavily tattooed arms caused a stir at Royal Ascot. Rachel Johnson and Sali Hughes debate whether tattoos should be banned from future events

Tattooed women caused controversy at this year's Royal Ascot. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features

So should females with tattoos be allowed or verboten at Ascot? Should tramp stamps be on view, and their owners permitted to penetrate the royal enclosure, that epicentre of social climbing during the especially rainy midsummer period still wistfully called The Season?

As editor-in-chief of the Lady, I would like to make my position on this important matter of etiquette crystal-clear. A discreet tattoo on your ankle is OK and you are more than welcome to trail around in your stilettos in the Berkshire mud for as long as you like. After all, if Ascot turned away all women with tattoos, Sam Cam wouldn't be allowed in the royal enclosure.

But when it comes to dressy, regal, social occasions and women sporting wide expanses of flesh inked with barenaked ladies and writhing octopi (as one race goer did) – nooooo! We don't want to see your "body art" any more than your thighs, thong or side-boobs. The dress code is there both to protect others from the unsightly, and help you preserve your own tattered shreds of dignity. The 2012 one demands that "midriffs should be covered". So should tattoos. Expect to see this enshrined in the 2013 rules.

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