I’m covered in tattoos – cruel strangers say I’ve ruined my body and insult me in Morrisons but I don’t care
A TATTOOED beauty has revealed cruel strangers tell her she’s “ruined her body” due to her extensive ink – even stopping her in the supermarket to insult her.
Lyndsey, from Falkirk, has a series of intricate tats which cover around 85 per cent of her body from head to toe.
She also has her eyebrows, eyeliner and lips all tattooed on.
The 37-year-old, who got her first small tat abroad aged 16, said: “Of my entire body, the only space I actually have left is the back of one thigh and a bit on my stomach.
“Other than that basically my entire body is tattooed. There’s hardly any skin left.
“I’m running out of space. One day all my skin will be filled in and I won’t be able to get more tattoos.
“So now I’m just being super selective and putting a lot of thought into it. Because once the space is filled up that’s me.”
The qualified makeup artist, who also runs her family’s luxury cabins – Kersebrock Kabins – in Larbert, loves flaunting her inkings in revealing outfits.
She regularly shared videos of herself getting new inkings and has racked up an army of 70,000 followers on TikTok (@lyndseylove3).
And social media users are always full of compliments, hailing her a “gorgeous colourful queen”.
But in real life, Lyndsey said she has faced some judgement from strangers.
“When I first started getting heavily tattooed, ones you can’t hide anymore like my sleeves and stuff, I got quite a lot of negativity”, she said.
“I’d be randomly walking through Morrisons and people would walk over to me and they’re like ‘oh my god you’ve got a pretty face but why have you done this to yourself? You’ve totally ruined yourself, why would you do that?’
“And I’m like, are you actually taking the p***? I’m just trying to buy my lunch and you’ve just walked over to me to insult me. That is insane’.
“But once you cross the line to heavily tattooed like your hands and your neck, nobody says anything to you. I don’t know if it’s because they think you look quite scary.”
She added: “It used to affect me to start with because I wasn’t as confident as I am now.
“When you have people coming over to you to go out their way to tell you that you’ve ruined yourself and you look terrible.
“I used to get quite upset. People were so nasty.
“But I just continued. I doubled down. I wasn’t going to let their opinions stop me from doing what I wanted to do.
“Now I’m fortunate that the majority of feedback that I get is positive. And even if it wasn’t, I’m at the stage now where I don’t care.
“I don’t take it in any more. I have a barrier up. If it’s anything negative at all, you can remove yourself from me. I don’t listen to it, I don’t entertain it, I bash it off. Positive vibes only.
“I’m 100% about self-love. Own every part of you, do what you want to do as long as it’s not offensive and not hurting anyone. Embrace yourself fully, embrace your flaws and your quirks.
“Someone’s always going to have something to say no matter what you do.
“My motto is if you don’t like it, don’t look at it. I’m not hurting anyone. This is just how I choose to be and express myself.”
But while she doesn’t care about the opinions of strangers, Lyndesy admits there were two people she was scared to show her tats to in the beginning – her mum and dad.
“I’d always wanted loads of tattoos but I was terrified of my parents, they would actually kill me”, she said.
“So I started getting little ones here and there, trying not to tell them. Then I got to my early twenties and thought this is ridiculous. I’ve not lived at home in years. Am I actually not going to get tattoos because I’m scared of my mum and dad?
“I sat them down and told them ‘this is a thing now’. Just get on board, it is what it is.
“But I’ve promised my dad I will never do my face.”
And now, Lyndsey said they don’t even notice her new inkings.
She added: “I literally came home with my full neck and throat tattoo and I went to a family dinner and nobody noticed.
“I thought they were winding me up, but they genuinely hadn’t noticed.”