'Tattoo addict' with ink all over body banned from pub and school over body art (2024)

A mum "addicted" to tattoos has been barred from the local pub and her child's school over her extreme artwork - but has vowed not to stop. Melissa Sloan, 47, gets a new design inked on her skin every week, mostly on her face.

She is so ink-obsessed that even the local tattoo parlours have refused to work with her, meaning the vast majority of her artwork is done "prison style" by her partner, Luke, at home.

Speaking with the Daily Star in 2023, the mum, from Wales, revealed she had struggled to find a job since she began getting tattooed regularly at the age of 20. She previously worked as a cleaner but after losing that role, her continuously growing collection of crucifixes and Playboy bunnies have damaged her professional prospects.

Melissa said: "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. The first job I had was cleaning ages ago, cleaning toilets.

"People have said I have never had a job in my life, I have had one once and it didn't last long. But, if someone offered me a job tomorrow I would go and work – I would take that offer."

Despite her love for tattoos, Melissa has found that the artists themselves do not reciprocate the sentiment. The mum, who has lost count of how many inkings she has, gets most of her work done at home but looks for a pro touch for more intricate designs.

Melissa said: "Tattoo shops shut the door on me – tattooists won't let me in. When I had [my face] done, there's one about five miles up the road and they won't [tattoo me]. They won't do it because I'm beyond help – because I've gone too far."

The mum, who admitted she enjoys a pint in a pub, revealed that she has been barred from all her local boozers, with some even handing down a "life ban" due to her extensive body art.

She said: "I'm not allowed in the pub, it's all pubs. I've been banned for life from pubs in the past because of the tattoos. I [have gone] into pubs and have people look at me like I'm nobody, you get judgemental people.

"I am banned from pubs in my area, I can't get in because of my tattoos. [I miss] just speaking to people, I'm the one who speaks to everybody when I've had a drink and I'll be talking to everyone. But, there's nothing I can do about it [being banned]."

And while her pub ban meant her Christmas Day plans were scuppered in a previous year, her tattoos have also caused issues during the festive period at her children's school.

Melissa claims she was forced to watch her child's nativity play through a window, as people couldn't look beyond her unconventional looks.

She said: "No Christmas parties and when I go to my child's school I don't get invited. They said once for me to go to the back garden and look through the class window.

"The teachers told me to do that, that's why I don't go to the school play. I feel so jealous as I can't go there and to the Christmas fayre as I know what [the teachers and parents] are like towards me."

And even though Melissa is regularly taunted in the street for her look, with one person calling her a "freak" in front of her kids, Melissa has no plans to stop getting new artwork. She turned down "free" laser treatment on the NHS to remove her face ink, as she knew she would just start the tattoo process all over again.

Melissa is also willing to "gamble" on her vision by getting her eyeballs tattooed and reckons she will go "blackout" one day, covering her entire body in dark ink.

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