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.

The studio said his turnaround is deeper than appearances: tattoos don’t define character, and the real work is the commitment to change. Souza expects to need at least eight sessions, using different lasers to break up pigment, rejuvenate the skin, and minimize scarring.

He traces his lowest point to a brutal breakup that led to drug use and an arrest. During a stint in a shelter, he met someone who introduced him to Christianity—an encounter he believes saved his life.

Now he’s rebuilding: pursuing steady employment to support his young son and working to regain guardianship of his elderly mother, who is in a nursing facility. He cautions others to think carefully before tattooing their faces; while he once reveled in being “Brazil’s most tattooed man,” he says his priorities changed after his baptism and conversion. He no longer tattoos clients and doesn’t judge those who choose ink—he simply wants a life anchored in purpose and peace.

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