South Shields woman covers legs with Coronation Street tattoos

Coronation Street enthusiast Rebecca Haynes has shown her love for the ITV soap opera by covering both her lower legs with tattoos devoted to the series.

Feisty Elsie Tanner, jailbird Deirdre Rachid, murderous Richard Hillman, the Rovers itself and even the flying ducks from Hilda Ogden's mural all make an appearance.

So too does local newspaper The Weatherfield Gazette and its front page devoted to the show's devastating 2010 tram crash.

Rebecca, 32, from South Shields, said: "People may think I'm crackers although I don't think it is any different to showing your love for your favourite football team.

"People around here may have Sunderland tattoos or Newcastle United tattoos and no-one says anything."

In among all the Corrie tributes is a tattoo of her late aunty, Edna Slater, also from South Shields, who was the inspiration behind Rebecca's love of the show before her death at the age of 76 in 1999.

Rebecca, who works for the Alzheimer's Society as a communities co-ordinator, said: "Every Friday from about the age of four I used to stay over with her and play out before getting called in to watch the show with her.

"I've been a fan ever since, try never to miss an episode and am working through all the box sets from the very start in the 1960s.

"I've got to the 1970s so I've still got a long way to go before I get to where I started watching the show at the start of the 1990s."

While Rebecca does not want to disclose how much the artwork has cost, she has spent around 35 hours having the images added during regular visits to the Pins and Needles studio, in Newcastle, over a five-year period.

She also used the addition of one tattoo last year - after paying for the cost of the work herself - as a means of raising sponsorship for the We Love Manchester charity following the Manchester Arena bombing.

One final sitting will shortly see the catchphrase "Free the Weatherfield One" added next to the image of Deirdre Rachid behind bars.

Rebecca, who is married to Andrea Haynes and a parent to the couple's son, Jackson, two, said: "I'll never say never but I think that will be it for now although you never know what might inspire me in the show in the future."

What doesn't inspire her is the 58-year-old show's BBC rival, EastEnders, as she added: "I turn the TV over if I ever hear its theme tune in my house.

"It's just so grim whereas in Coronation Street, even when you have someone hanging over the edge of a cliff, you know that the next scene will be funny to lighten the mood.

"It's just so uplifting."

What Rebecca's Corrie tattoos show:

The Rovers Return - The local boozer and very heartbeat of the series.

Deirdre Rachid behind bars - Her 1998 jailing for fraud sparked a real-life campaign for show maker Granada to free her.

Richard Hillman - Conman who killed Maxine Peake before drowning after driving into a canal in 2003.

"Woman, Stanley, woman" - Hilda Odgen's famous 1977 response after her husband asks what her lipstick tastes like.

Hilda's flying ducks - The mallards mural inside the Ogdens' house was the backdrop for many a row between the pair.

"Tram Terror" - Weatherfield Gazette headline after an explosion sees a tram car fall from a viaduct on to the street's famous cobbles.

Elsie Tanner - The original "siren of the street" was memorably played by Pat Phoenix between 1960-1984.