Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Scotswoman saves skin for Las Vegas

Tattooed grandmother to receive key to city

Anne Rose of Glasgow, Scotland, stands in front of the sign greeting visitors to downtown Las Vegas. She will receive the key to the city today. Photo by Gary Thompson. Rose shows off some of her tatoos. Photo by Gary Thompson.

On a Friday afternoon two months ago, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was sitting in his office chatting with visitors when an aide strode in clutching photographs of a heavily tattooed woman who wanted to meet with him.

Goodman examined the close-ups showing the woman's numerous Las Vegas-themed tattoos, scanned the woman's letter and then, through laughter, gave the aide instructions.

"Tell her I'll meet with her under one condition: that her next tattoo is the face of the happiest mayor in the world," Goodman said.

Despite his laughter, the mayor was not joking.

Goodman today will meet with Glasgow, Scotland's Anne Rose in his City Hall office to present her with a key to the city.

The illustrated woman has in turn vowed to adorn one of the few blank parts left on her body with Goodman's image.

"I certainly saved a space for Oscar B. Goodman, don't you worry about that," Rose, a 48-year-old grandmother of two, said Monday. "Nowhere rude, of course."

The rendering of Goodman's face will join a select group of other symbols of the city, among them Elvis Presley and Vegas Vic, the 75-foot-tall waving neon cowboy erected over the Pioneer Club in 1951.

Along her arms and down her legs, Rose also has tattoos of a slot machine, a showgirl, a wedding chapel, playing cards, dice and the well-known "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

Most prominent is the word "Vegas" inked across the top of her chest in large letters.

"This woman is the ultimate Las Vegas fan and through her artwork has promoted our great city to friends and strangers alike around the world," the mayor said in a statement released Monday.

So how did this Scotswoman come to love Las Vegas so much that she became a walking billboard for the city?

Rose explains she took her first vacation here about 15 years ago and found the spirit of the place simply breathtaking.

"There's such a buzz here, so much energy and everyone is so happy," she said. "It just makes me feel young, vibrant and alive."

The unemployed former nanny has since taken some 30 trips here with a boyfriend she refers to as her "rich man."

She got her first work done two years ago in Europe after her adult daughter had invited her along to a tattoo parlor. When considering a first tattoo, it simply made since to celebrate the city.

"Vegas is my heart and soul, and now it's on my skin. It's my raison d'etre," she said. "A lot of pain I've been through for Las Vegas."

Now, Rose's ambition is for her tattoos to land her financial sponsorship for promoting Las Vegas.

"It would be a dream come true for me to be an ambassador for the city I love so," Rose said.

Officials with the agency that promotes Las Vegas tourism to the rest of the world demurred when asked if they would be interested in enlisting Rose as a marketing tool.

"We appreciate her efforts on our behalf, but we like to think that every visitor who's been to Las Vegas is an ambassador for us," said Erika Yowell, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The LVCVA has never been approached with such an offer, Yowell said.

"But we do get people all the time who've written songs about Las Vegas wanting to sell it to us for tourism marketing," she said.

Rose also hopes to parlay publicity from the Goodman tattoo into a promotional cash cow that would involve more body art.

She believes a Las Vegas casino will be willing to pay her to advertise on one of the largest spaces left.

"I've left my back vacant for a big tattoo," she said.

If that works out, Rose will use the revenue to finance breast enlargement surgery to boost her cup size from 32C to 38DD.

"When I get my boobs done, they're also for sale," she said.

The Scotswoman elaborated by saying she hopes to provide advertising space along her augmented chest to one of Las Vegas' swankest resorts.

Said Rose: "I'll leave open how much they're worth, but I'm saving the bazookas for Bellagio."