Nicole Richie wants to remove a tattoo on her lower back, which she has dubbed a ''butt crack cross''.
The 'Fashion Star' mentor is embarrassed by her ''tramp stamp'' - a cross tattoo located on her lower back - and has consulted with Los Angeles physician Dr. Tattoff to have the inking removed. Chronicling her visit in a new AOL web series, '#CandidlyNicole', she said: ''I was 16 and an idiot and didn't want my parents to see, you know?
It just means a certain thing and I don't want to be part of that group.'' The 31-year-old star - who has two children, Harlow, five, and three-year-old Sparrow with Good Charlotte star Benji Madden - has nine tattoos in total and got her first one at the age of 14 under less than desirable circumstances.
She explained: ''The first one I got in a room inside of a garage. The guy actually took out a gun and asked my friend to hold it while he tattooed me. ''I got a Chinese love symbol - which I don't think it [said what it was supposed to say].'' After consulting with the doctor and discovering her undesirable body art would take a year of treatment to remove, however, Nicole eventually decided to wait till the future to have the tattoo zapped.
She said: ''I don't want to wait two months in between each process. It's going to take over a year. If it was a one time thing, I would do it. But I'm not going back every two months. It's too much upkeep. I'm hoping in 10 years they'll have new technology.''