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Melissa Sloan, a 46-year-old woman from Wales, has a unique story that revolves around her love for tattoos. For the past 26 years, she has been in a love-hate relationship with a tattoo machine, which has led her to accumulate an astonishing number of tattoos. She began her journey into body art at the age of twenty.
Sloan’s body is adorned with almost 800 tattoos, including her face. While she acknowledges that her tattoo addiction is affecting her life, she compares it to other addictions, saying, “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.”
Her addiction to tattoos has gone to the extent that she carries a tattoo gun with her, getting new tattoos in unconventional places like her car. She even resorts to getting tattoos “prison style” from her partner.
Unfortunately, Melissa Sloan’s extensive body ink has made it nearly impossible for her to secure a job. She has faced rejection from employers who refuse to hire her due to her tattoo-covered appearance. In her pursuit of employment, she even applied for a toilet cleaning job but was turned down because of her tattoos. She stated that she had once worked as a toilet cleaner but didn’t continue for long. Despite her challenges, she remains open to job offers and would gladly take one if given the opportunity.
Sloan’s unique appearance has made her an outcast in society, and she experiences verbal abuse, derision, and negative attention whenever she leaves her home. She has come to expect this kind of treatment, and she asserts her determination to remain true to herself.
Even though she faces societal rejection and criticism, Melissa Sloan’s two children, aged 8 and 10, view her as a role model. They have already started to enjoy body art themselves, and Sloan allows them to have temporary tattoos. Her hope is that they will have “better ones when they are older.” She has been denied access to school activities in which her children participate, and while people predict that her children will distance themselves from her when they grow older, she remains confident that they will appreciate her for who she is.
Melissa Sloan’s journey is a testament to her unwavering self-expression through tattoos, despite societal challenges and rejection. It is also a unique family story as her children follow in her footsteps, finding inspiration in their mother’s unconventional path. While she has been labeled a “freak” by some, she remains unapologetically true to herself, embracing her love for body art.
