Jessie's Girl hitmaker Rick Springfield has a hawk tattooed on his shoulder as a tribute to his beloved bull terrier/great Dane mix who appeared on the cover of his hit 1981 album Working Class Dog.

The rocker and actor found a bird of prey trapped in his chimney while he was mourning the loss of his canine pal Ronnie in 1994 and he believes the bird represents his late pet's spirit.

He explains, "The tattoo is a reaffirmation of a spiritual path for me. After my dad died I completely lost contact with any kind of spiritual belief and when Ronnie died I was searching for where his essence went and I couldn't find it.

"I put his ashes on the top of the fireplace and I heard this noise in the fireplace and got a flashlight and there was a baby hawk caught in the ashes of the fireplace. I called animal control and he came and pulled this hawk out.

"Ronnie had been dead for two days and it turns out the hawk was in there for the same time. The officer let the hawk go and it released something in me, so that's why I have a hawk on my shoulder."