Iman pays tribute to husband David Bowie with tattoo

A file photo of Iman and David Bowie
Iman has marked the 10th anniversary of David Bowie's death with a tattoo tribute to her husband. -AP

Iman has honoured her late husband David Bowie with a new tattoo.

The legendary singer died following an 18-month private battle with liver cancer on January 10, 2016, aged 69.

Iman marked the 10th anniversary of his passing by getting the five minimalist rune-like black shapes from the bottom of his final album, Blackstar, inked on her forearm.

The 70-year-old model posted a video on social media of the moment she got the tattoo - of which the shapes abstractly spell out "BOWIE".

"Jan 10th. The pain didn't vanish.. it left in its place a loving permanent mark," she wrote.

Iman - who had daughter Alexandria "Lexi" Zahra Jones, 25, with Bowie, and is stepmother to his 54-year-old son, film director Duncan Jones - added the hashtag "#BowieForever".

Iman set the post to the pop icon's 1977 track Subterraneans.

Just two days before the 10th anniversary of Bowie's death, Iman marked what would have been his 79th birthday with a sweet Instagram post.

Captioning a black-and-white photo of the five-time Grammy award winner, she penned: "Jan 8th. Happy Heavenly Birthday. Your light burns so bright in all our hearts! We love and miss you."

Alexandria also took to the social media platform and paid tribute to her dad on his birthday.

Captioning a series of photos of the pair together over the years, she wrote: "Da big 79 today. Happy birthday pops, miss ya! (sic)".

Iman met Bowie when they were set up on a blind date in 1990.

In 2000, the Starman hitmaker told HELLO! magazine his attraction to her had been "immediate and all-encompassing".

"That she would be my wife, in my head, was a done deal," he gushed. "I'd never gone after anything in my life with such passion in all my life. I just knew she was the one."

Iman knew David was her Mr Right two weeks into dating him.

"I was coming from Paris, and I got to Los Angeles at the airport. The doors open to the plane, and I come out, and I see all these people taking a picture of somebody … He was standing there, flowers in hand, no security. That was when I knew he was a keeper," she told The Cut in 2011.

After popping the question to Iman on the banks of the River Seine in France, the couple wed twice in 1992.

They were first legally married in a private ceremony on April 24 that year in Lausanne, Switzerland, then had a bigger wedding ceremony two months later at the American Church of St James in Florence, Italy, on June 6.

The couple were together up until Bowie's death in January 2016.

In a 2021 interview with People, Iman said she "still feels married" following his passing.

"Someone a few years ago referred to David as my late husband, and I said, 'No, he's not my late husband. He's my husband.' Through my memory, my love lives."