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Viggo Mortensen's mafia mistake

Oct 1, 2007, 7:00 GMT

Viggo Mortensen has been mistaken for a member of the mafia.

The actor - who plays a Russian mobster in new film 'Eastern Promises' - sports fake tattoos for the role and kept them on after shooting when he went out for dinner in London.

However, his etchings stunned fellow diners, who thought he belonged to a notorious gang.

Viggo told the New York Daily News newspaper: "I went into a Russian restaurant in London. People saw the tattoos and stopped talking. They must have thought I was a real mafia man. It happened a couple of times. After a while, I figured I better wash off the ink before I went out to eat."

Although those tattoos were fake, Mortensen does have a real piece of body art.

The 'Lord of the Rings' star has an 'H' on his wrist as a tribute to his son Henry.

Mortensen - who is now divorced from Henry's mother Exene Cervenka - said: "When he was little and he first started to write, he wanted to write Hs everywhere, all over my arms. It was either that or the wall, so I said, 'Go ahead.'

"One day he put one right there and it was beautiful and I thought it would be a nice memory to have. I went right down to a tattoo parlour on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and had a guy tattoo over it."

(C) BANG Media International