[Alizée 4K]

As someone who grew up in the UK but moved to France relatively recently, its impossible to overstate just how big a part of French culture anime and Manga are. Even the supermarkets and grocery shops have large manga sections. Its FAR more prevalent and well known than in the UK and America where its a more niche interest.

Looking more into the history of this, in the 70s-90s there was a massive trend for Japanese animation, comics and videogames to be based on old French literature and historical events. Of course these were then cheap and easy to translate into French and shown to French kids and they became very popular and the visual style became as commonly recognised as more western cartoon styles. There have been (and continue to be) many anime series that are literal co-productions between French and Japanese studios, even government funded ones, and there is also a large thriving business of French written and produced graphic novels and animated series that are very Japanese in style because of this influence, and many of these get translated and released in Japan.

Disney is also a huge influence on French culture even more so than it is for all children worldwide, especially for millenials and younger, because of the influence of Disneyland Paris strengthening what was already seen as a strong cultural bond between America and France through the Statue of Liberty etc. There is great pride for many young girls to be wearing clothes with Tinker Bell or Minnie Mouse next to the Eiffel Tower or with French phrases or fashion, and specifically "French" themed Disney merch sells far better than standard American imported merch.

Therefore when Alizée started to get tattoos, I was not surprised to see Tinker bell, Snow White, Sailor Moon and Arale. I have always wonered what the other Japanese looking character was, and I have learned today from @Alexx89 that it is a design based on Anilly when she was young! That's precious and I'm happy to know that I wasn't being ignorant to not recognise a popular character!

My own personal inner child was happy when I saw that she had a Snork, as the Snorks were very much a favourite of mine when growing up, but they weren't very popular in the UK and almost no-one seems to remember them. Turns out they were a lot more popular in France - they are a Belgian creation, of course French is one of the most common languages in Belgium and most/many Belgian cartoons and comics are either made in French or translated to it, so there is a lot of crossover between their media cultures. For those who don't know the Snorks, they are essentially underwater Smurfs. A lot of people assumed they were a Smurf "ripoff" but infact they are more like a spin-off side project from someone who was originally involved with developing the cartoon based on the newspaper comics.