The unfortunate pony, whose name has not been revealed, was saved from the tattoo artist's ink just in the nick of time, with a court order arriving shortly after the pony's rump had been shaved and decked out with a pre-tattoo pattern of the Stones' "tongue and lip" design.

The pony's owner said he merely wanted to make his pony "more unique and beautiful", but the court swiftly pointed out that the pony was already quite cute, and tattooing it would breach animal protection laws which specifically forbid tattooing "warm-blooded vertebrates".

Further, the court found that enhancing a pony's "beauty" in such a way had no justification and noted that the business registration filed by the owner tended to be a dead giveaway that, just maybe, he intended to profit from his pony's ink work ...