Mother with more than 800 tattoos branded as eccentric – reveals the backstory behind each inked design
A mother’s two adoring children still look up to her even though she’s taunted and teased by people who call her a ‘freak’.
The woman isn’t physically abnormal in any way. Instead, she has “prison style” tattoos all over her body. She claims she can’t stop getting new tattoos because she’s an addict, despite the fact that she can’t find employment and that verbal abuse is directed at her whenever she leaves her house.
To learn more about this mother and how she serves as a role model for her children, keep reading!
Wales native Melissa Sloan, 46, has a toxic 26-year romance with a tattoo gun but doesn’t seem to regret it. She started getting tattoos when she was 20 years old. Sloan now recognizes that she is rejected by society, and although knowing that her life would get worse as she gains more weight, she still won’t give up.
“It’s like when you have a [cigarette] or a drink, you get addicted. I can’t stop it now, it’s addictive, for me anyway. I just can’t stop it,” said Sloan, adding that since tattoo parlors started denying her, because she’s “beyond help,” she got her own kit. She continued, “I carry the [tattoo] gun around with me in the boot, I’ll get one in the car or anywhere.”
Sloan continues to have her partner give her three “tattoos prison style” each week despite the fact that she is unemployed and that her body and face are now covered in pretty sloppy ink. More than 800 tattoos are on her.
Sloan noted that while she once worked as a toilet cleaner, she no longer pursues positions with similar responsibilities.
“I can’t get a job. They won’t have me. I applied for a job cleaning toilets where I live and they won’t have me because of my tattoos…People have said I have never had a job in my life, I have had one once and it didn’t last long.” She continued, “But, if someone offered me a job tomorrow, I would go and work–I would take that offer.”
Sloan claimed that in addition to being jobless, she is also treated like an outcast and that whenever she leaves her house, she is verbally harassed and made fun of, with people gawking and gazing.
“Worse, the more I have the more they think I’m a freak. They jump out of the way and I think ‘what are you doing that for?’ It’s horrible,” she said. “I expected this in life, I can’t fit in with people as I like to be me and I’m always going to be myself.”
Sloan further alleges that she has been excluded from local bars and activities at her children’s elementary and middle schools, where her two young children, ages eight and ten, may even participate. She is unaffected by even that.
“The kids say, ‘mum they’re looking at you’ and I say ‘take no notice of them,’” said the body art enthusiast, adding that her kids pick up on negative attitudes towards her. “They say my children will run away when they’re older, that’s heartbreaking.”
Sloan’s kids already like body art, and she encourages them to follow her example by modeling it for them.
“They got some on their arms last night, they’ve got school so they will have to take them off,” Sloan said, about allowing the children to have temporary tattoos, with promises for permanent art in the future. “I tell them they’ll have better ones when they are older.”
She was an average looking woman before to getting her tattoos. On her Instagram page, she posted pictures of her face before getting tattoos. If you knew her back then, she doesn’t even appear like the same person now!
While appropriate body art is acceptable, some people can go too far. Although passing judgment is never appropriate, we can comprehend why employers are hesitant to give her the opportunity to represent their business. To prevent future feelings of exclusion, we hope that this woman’s children learn from their mother’s errors.
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