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If Joy Tomkins ends up in a life-or-death situation her wishes are plain to see – written across her chest.

The 81-year-old gran-of-six is so adamant that doctors should not save her life in an emergency, she has had a “Do Not Resuscitate” tattoo.

And in case she collapses face down and paramedics miss the big, blue capital letters, she’s had “PTO” and an arrow inked on her back.

Joy said yesterday: “I do not want to be half dead, I want to be fully dead. I’m afraid the medical profession will, with the best of intentions, keep me alive when I don’t want to be alive.”

A former editorial secretary of Punch magazine, Joy is not terminally ill but has arthritis, Reynard’s disease and diabetes.

She said: “I don’t want to lie for hours, months or even years before dying. I do not want to end up as a vegetable. I don’t want my family to remember me as a lump. That is why I got the tattoo.”

Joy, whose husband Malcolm died aged 51, after a tough seven-year-battle with Conn’s syndrome, added: “I don’t have a death wish I just don’t want to be kept alive in pain.”

In 1981, the year Malcolm, a civil servant, died Joy made a living will. She has got the tattoos to make sure.

Joy, from Downham Market, Norfolk, said her children Thomas, 52, and Mary, 50, “accept my wishes”.

But a General Medical Council spokesman said most doctors would ignore her DNR tattoo. He said: “Mrs Tomkins’ tattoo would not be enough information by itself for a doctor to make this decision on in an emergency.”

He said DNR wishes need to be put in writing and witnessed, or for a health attorney to be appointed.