David Beckham wanted to be with Brooklyn for his tattoo

David Beckham stopped his son getting a tattoo because he wasn’t with him.

The 42-year-old retired soccer star – who has a number of inkings himself – had always made 18-year-old Brooklyn "promise" he could be with him when he got inked for the first time, so after being tipped off by a friend in Paris, France, that his eldest child was planning a secret body art session, he quickly intervened.

He said: "He was with his girlfriend in Paris, and one of my friends called me that was looking after him there and said, ‘It’s not coming from me, but Brooklyn is in a tattoo shop with his girlfriend.

"And he’d always promised me, and I always said to him, ‘Your first tattoo, if you’re gonna have one, your first tattoo, I want to be there just to experience it as a dad.

"That was the deal… So I called him, I FaceTimed him, and I said, ‘What are you doing mate?’ And he said, ‘I’m just going for dinner.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure you’re going for dinner?’ And he was like, ‘Actually dad, I’m in a tattoo place. I was thinking about having something, I’m with my girlfriend.’

"I was like, ‘OK, you’re more than welcome to have it but you remember you promised me, and I’m your dad and I would feel really upset if you actually went through with it,’ so he didn’t. Thankfully he waited."

And David – who also has Romeo, 14, Cruz, 12, and five-year-old Harper with wife Victoria – admitted Brooklyn had been waiting a very long time before being allowed to get inked after turning 18 in March.

Speaking to James Corden on ‘The Late, Late Show’, he said: "There’s absolutely nothing I can say. He’s got two. He was 18 pretty recently, and he was counting the days down because he talked about having a tattoo for a long time."

For his first tattoo, the aspiring photographer opted to have a Native American chief etched onto his forearm, a design which David has on his side, by legendary tattoo artist Mark Mahoney, the owner and principal artist at Hollywood’s Shamrock Social Club.

Brooklyn shared a photo on Instagram and wrote: "Honoured to have my first tattoo done by dads friend Mark Mahoney(sic)," and added: "Thank you so much Mark x just like dads.(sic)"

A few days later, the teenager had a camera inked on his upper left arm.