The actress explains that she “thought it would be a good idea” after watching a prison tutorial on YouTube.

Simone Ashley picked up an interesting new hobby during the pandemic, teaching herself how to tattoo after watching a prison tutorial on YouTube.

The Bridgerton star stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday where she confessed to the host that she’s not only given herself, but also a number of her castmates, DIY tattoos. Ashley explained that it all started at the beginning of the pandemic while she was in lockdown in Los Angeles. Like everyone else at the time, she was “making banana bread, tie-dying, all of that kind of stuff,” when she “thought it would be a good idea” to buy a tattoo gun. She added that the whole purchase process was “surprisingly easy. I didn’t need an ID, I didn’t need anything. I just clicked a button.”

Once the tattoo gun arrived, the actress scoured YouTube for instructions on how to actually use it. After searching “how to do a tattoo at home,” Ashley said, “I found this video and it was like, ‘Oh, you can use this deodorant stick,’ like as a chemical reaction on the transfer paper and all of the stuff. And then it started getting a bit deep and I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s using some really interesting stuff.’” That’s when she realized she was watching a video intended for a very specific audience. “I looked at the username and it was called ‘prisontattoo.com,’” she revealed. “I looked at his videos and was like, ‘Wow, there is an inmate making videos in prison.’ This is a fab idea!”

So she followed the instructions in his tutorial and gave herself a small sphinx tattoo on her ankle which she showed off to Kimmel and the audience. She added, “I’ve tattooed myself and castmates that I’ve worked with before.” Kimmel mistook the mythological creature for a dog, suggesting that Ashley, “Keep practicing, I guess,” although he admitted that she did do a “pretty good” job with the design. She then jokingly asked the host if she’d be doing a tattoo on him after the show, to which Kimmel replied, “I have no tattoos, but if I ever get one, I’m gonna call you and ask you to do it.”