Mom with 800 Tattoos Shares Rare Look Without Ink—Says She’s Called a “Freak”
Melissa Sloan, known across Britain as the “most tattooed mom,” stunned followers after posting a rare photo of herself without her trademark body art. Over the last decade, she has collected more than 800 tattoos, describing her habit as something she simply can’t quit. “It’s like smoking or drinking—I’m hooked,” she admitted.
Because most tattoo parlors have refused her service, Sloan took matters into her own hands, using a tattoo gun she keeps in her car. For ten years now, she’s been tattooing herself up to three times a week. She admits she can hardly remember what her natural skin looked like before she began.
Recently, she tried covering her tattoos with a £3 foundation just to see the difference. The temporary transformation shocked her two youngest sons—though not in the way she expected. “They told me, ‘Go back to being you, mum,’” Sloan recalled. “They said I looked like a stranger.”
Her older children, however, want nothing to do with her and have criticized her extreme appearance. Online, she has been mocked and called names like “freak” and “smurf.” Still, some praised her bare-faced look, urging her to embrace it.
Despite the backlash, Sloan insists she has no regrets. To her, the tattoos represent freedom and authenticity. “I love being myself,” she said. “And I want my children to know that beauty comes in many different forms.”
Her unconventional look has come at a cost—she has been banned from pubs, kept away from school events, and says her ink has ruined her chances of finding work. “No one will hire me,” she explained. “But if a job came along tomorrow, I’d take it in a heartbeat.”