Asda tattoo on Jodie Waddell's bottom may be a 'bit mad' but it's a real tribute to wonderful supermarket staff who braved Covid pandemic to keep us fed – Susan Dalgety

Pilton woman Jodie Waddell has attracted a lot of attention in recent days after the 32-year-old spent a tax rebate getting a tattoo on her bum.

Jodie Waddell has a tattoo of the Asda logo after having worked there during lockdown

So far, so uninteresting. Tattoos, once only seen on merchant seamen, are now common. Even your conventional columnist has a tasteful tat – a tiny guardian angel on my right shoulder, to mark a significant birthday.

But mother-of-three Jodie, who admits to being a “bit mad”, didn’t get any old tat on her backside. She is now the proud owner of the green Asda logo on her right buttock, a tribute to the Leith store where she worked for a year.

“It was like having a wee family at work,” she told this newspaper last week. “Some weeks I was doing 50 hours a week and it (Asda) became like my family, particularly because you couldn’t see anyone else while we were all in lockdown.”

I have to say I felt the same way about my regular trips to Aldi and Lidl during lockdown. I went to one or the other every day, happy to queue to get in.

I didn’t even mind that I was usually too late to get any of that day’s supply of toilet roll or pasta, it was just so wonderful to be outside instead of sitting at home watching the pandemic unfold on live TV.

And I will be eternally gratefully to the supermarket staff who kept the country fed and watered during this most difficult period in our recent history.

While many of us were able to work from home, tapping away on our laptops, essential staff like lorry drivers, shelf stackers and store assistants had to risk their lives every day so that the country did not grind to a complete standstill.

Jodie’s tattoo might seem a tribute too far to her former supermarket colleagues, but it makes as much sense as getting a dolphin or a skull etched on your arm or ankle.

She says her Asda tattoo left in her in a lot of pain. “It was sore,” she said, adding “you think because it’s on the bum, it’d be fine, but it really wasn’t”.

Just as well she didn’t work in Marks and Spencer or Home Bargains during the pandemic.