For years, this 81-year-old great-grandmother had warned her childen to give tattoo parlours a wide berth.

But she became so worried about assisted dying she walked into a tattoo shop and had "don't euthanize me" inked onto her left arm.

Christine Nagel, from Calgary in Alberta, decided to get a tattoo herself after the Canadian Parliament legalised euthanasia and assisted suicide in June this year.

She is concerned that the legislation "makes it legal for us to play God and to make decisions over life and death ourselves".

As part of the ageing population of Canada, she thinks it is unChristian to think elderly people can be disposed of "humanely, painlessly and without the need for suffering" by legalised euthanasia that "will become the salvation to our overburdened health care systems".

Within a few years, seniors will outnumber the rest of the population, she says, recognising that this will be costly.

She wrote on Mercator: "Obviously, none of this is acceptable to us Christians. We look to Christ on the cross, stripped of his garments, writhing in agony, and covered in blood - hardly a dignified image of God's son."

But what happens at the end of her life must be between herself and God, she says, adding: "So to understand this message clearly, read my shoulder!"

And she told Global News: "How would you feel if you turned up at the gates and St Peter said, 'just a minute we weren't expecting you for another 18 months?'"

Her decision was widely picked up on Twitter and Facebook:

The Catholic News Agency tweeted "It's drastic, but this very clearly says, 'I'm going to live until God's ready for me'."