Man Once 95% Tattooed Unveils Dramatic Makeunder After Embracing Faith
A Brazilian man who once drew attention for having ink across nearly his entire body now looks startlingly different—by choice—and says the change reflects a new life centered on faith and second chances.
Leandro de Souza, 36, from Bagé in Rio Grande do Sul, was celebrated last year at the Santa Rosa International Tattoo Expo as “Brazil’s most tattooed man,” with roughly 95% of his skin covered. Today, he’s actively erasing that identity.
Souza explained to O Globo that the persona no longer fit. He’d started tattooing at 13 and chased ever more extreme body modifications, a path that eventually made steady work hard to find and, at one point, left him living in a shelter—CNN Brasil previously noted the same struggle. “I realized I didn’t want the extremes anymore,” he said, adding that he sometimes felt like a sideshow attraction.
Everything shifted two years ago when he embraced Christianity. The faith he found reframed how he saw his body and his future. Earlier this year he began the grueling process of laser removal. In an August 28 Instagram post, he showed before-and-after photos of his face following his fifth session at Hello Tattoo Studio in São Paulo, which is providing the procedures at no cost. He describes the treatments as intensely painful despite anesthesia—pain he views as part of owning past choices.