David Beckham's new tattoo

David Beckham has a new tattoo depicting himself as Jesus.

The British soccer ace - who already has a number of body art pieces including a topless depiction of his wife Victoria and an inscription of her name in Hindi - underwent two sessions over 12 hours to get the image, which includes three cherubs representing his sons Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight and Cruz, six.

David said: "It is Jesus being carried by three cherubs and obviously the cherubs are my boys and so my thought of it is that at some point my boys are going to need to look after me and that's what they're doing in the picture. It means a lot."

Discussing the tattoo - done by Los Angeles-based Mark Mahoney - David revealed he never plans to get the artwork done but often wakes up inspired with an idea.

He said: "I had it done before I left Los Angeles. I don't plan on having a tattoo, just sometimes I wake up and I have an idea of an image I'd like on me.

"It's just something that I've found kind of expresses how I feel or thoughts I have or memories. There's not one tattoo I've got on me that doesn't mean something."

The new image - which is placed on the left side of his chest - was initially started by an eight-hour session, and David thinks Mark did an "amazing" job.

He said: "It was an 8-hour session which lasted until about 3 o'clock in the morning. I then went back a few weeks later and we did another 4 hours. It really is amazing."

Fashion designer Victoria - who is currently pregnant with the couple's fourth child - also has a number of tattoos, including an inscription on her back and a Roman numeral on her wrist.