Lewis Hamilton announces new tattoo with inspirational quote that turns out to be copied and pasted from online quiz

F1's Lewis Hamilton is one of the most talked-about men in the world. And even when the racing takes a break, he finds a way to keep himself in the papers and websites.

And why not? Good luck to him, since his high profile pays his bills.

Anyway, last week Hamilton was all across the media after posting very painful-looking pictures of him getting a huge new tattoo splatooned across his chest.

At the time he didn't show off what the full tattoo was, but he's now posted a full image on Instagram showing it to be a lion.

With the picture, Hamilton posted this message:

"The African Lion Symbolizes mastering your emotions... The African lion roars ferociously and the roar can be heard for miles... It is summoning the power of the sun to be unleashed at his will, he proclaims his power as a message and a warning"

Pretty cool, eh? Inspiring stuff?
So much so in fact that we trawled the web wondering where the quote comes from since – for all his talents – Hamilton doesn't strike us as an especially lyrical wordsmith.

What we found was slightly disappointing, to say the least: the passage in question appears to have come from an online quiz which promises to help you find your spiritual animal.

Now, it's possible that whoever cobbled together the quiz might have lifted that piece of purple prose from, ooh, Joseph Conrad or something.
But probably not. And looking at it again, what's with the whole "power of the sun to be unleashed at his will" stuff about? We can only think of one situation where people get to throw balls of flame at each other, and that has very, very little to do with either F1 or lions.

Anyway, putting all that aside – it's still a very cool bit of body art, and kudos to Lewis for putting up with what must have been a staggering bit of needlework.

(By the way, in the interests of balance World of Sport took the quiz as well, and was amazed to discover that our spiritual animal is a tiger, the animal who "symbolizes primal instincts, unpredictability, and ability to trust yourself." Which all sound like pretty good qualifications for an F1 driver, in case anyone out there is willing to take a punt on an up-and-coming star whose usual exploits on four wheels involve a diesel estate and the M25.)