She may have been in showbusiness for almost sixty years, but Dame Judi Dench is still young at heart, if her latest interview is anything to go by. Gracing the cover of the March edition of Good Housekeeping, the Oscar-winning actress said that she was considering marking her 80th birthday by getting a tattoo.

Dench turned 80 on December 9th last year, and despite the landmark she declared that she has no intention of retiring or slowing down just yet. “All I wanted was the people I love around me, I didn’t want a fuss. The words old, eight-oh and retire are banned in my house,” the Philomena and Skyfall actress said. “The prospect of no work on the horizon makes me a bit edgy. I have no particular ambitions – I just want to be employed!”

Judi Dench Emma Watson
Dame Judi Dench, picture here with Emma Watson, is considering getting a tattoo

To emphasise her point, she said: 'I am tempted to have a tattoo to mark my birthday. Finty’s [Dench’s daughter] very keen on me having one. There’s an Indian symbol that I like which supposedly represents life and love and everything. One of the cameramen who worked on The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel told me what it meant, but I’m a bit nervous in case I’m being set up… It might be unbelievably rude!”

More: Emma Watson and Dame Judi Dench win Britannia Awards

However, she draws the line at the prospect of cosmetic surgery, saying that’s she too squeamish to think about it. “I don’t think I’m vain enough. It’s not that I don’t mind the lines, because I do, but just not enough to do anything. My agent would go barmy. I’d do myself out of the parts for old people.”

Since her professional acting bow in 1957 with the Old Vic Company, Dench has won pretty much every single award under the sun, including ten BAFTAs and six Olivier Awards. In October last year, she began filming the second series of the BBC period drama ‘The Hollow Crown’, in which she stars as Cecily, Duchess of York opposite Benedict Cumberbatch’s Richard III.

More: Dame Judi Dench sponsored young actor to help him with his career