Growing up, Nadine Anderson was fascinated by her dad’s tattoo-covered arms.
So as soon as she turned 18, she wanted some ink of her own.
But over the past five years, the care assistant from Dundee, Scotland, has covered her whole body in tattoos and body modifications, costing over £15,000.
‘I’ve always wanted tattoos,’ Nadine said.
‘I was constantly looking at Pinterest forums and stuff looking at new tattoo styles that were coming out and body modifications, deciding how I wanted to look when I was 18.
‘I was the classic daddy’s girl growing up and seeing my dad covered in that I always knew I wanted to be like him and have all that kind of stuff.
‘I discussed my first tattoo with my dad, and he supported my decision he was like, “as long as you’re sure you want to do it” so I went and booked my first tattoo with my dad.’
Nadine has lots of black-out tattoos, where large areas are coloured completely black, as well as piercings, scarification on her head, and a split tongue, which she flew over to Germany to have done due to laws in the UK that prevent piercing parlours from carrying out the procedure.
She says she’s lost count of how many tattoos she has as they all now make up her ‘bodysuit’ and have morphed into one large piece. But she claims that 90% of her body is covered in ink and she’s not quite finished yet.
‘I’ve spent about £15,000,’ she said.
‘It’s just my feet I need to tattoo now.
‘I think I would add a little bit more under my right eye because there’s spaces I want to fill up eventually, but that’s all I would probably add is just a little tiny piece on it because I think I’ve got quite a lot on it now.
‘You can still tell what my features are like naturally, and I wouldn’t want to take away from that because I think that’s the beauty of that tattoo.’
Her family and friends aren’t phased by her look but she had received some scathing comments from strangers.
She added: ‘Some (friends and family) think I’m crazy, but I’ve always spoken about being covered at the end of the day, I’m still Nadine and they still love me. If anything, I’m just more me.
‘I get people who are inquisitive and want to know my motivations, people who congratulate me on having the confidence to be me, and then people who instantly give the horrible looks and comments.
‘It’s kind of stereotypical thing that if they don’t get it they’ll want to put it down, or if it’s not their cup of tea they won’t want to look at your motivations for it.
‘It doesn’t phase me because when you go off on a journey that’s purely about what you want to do there’s always going to be someone not happy about it, and most of these people I’ve never met in my life so I really couldn’t care less.
‘They say things like, “you’ve ruined your life”, “you can’t be employed” and “you’ll regret this in forty years” blah blah blah, but at the end of the day I’m fully employed, I’ve paid for every single tattoo out of my own wage, no one’s ever paid for them, I’ve got my own flat and honestly I live a very normal life.
‘If I’d covered myself in a bunch of offensive work, then I deserve all of that, but you can’t really be offended by art.
‘It’s just different ways of showing different designs and it’s permanent and on you forever and something I always wanted, so when I flew to Europe it was totally worth all the time and the money spent because it’s something I’m so passionate about.
‘It’s never stopped anything for me. I personally think it only stops what you allow it to stop.’
Nadine says that although she loves her work, she advises other people to make sure they really want body art before they commit to it.
‘I’m happy to give my advice about aftercare for tattoos,’ she said.
‘But if they’re ever like, ‘I want a blackout sleeve but I’m don’t know if I should’ then I always answer ‘no’ because I think the moment you have an uncertainty then you shouldn’t do it because chances are it’s permanent, unless you have to go through all the lasering and stuff, and it’s not worth it if you’re going to regret it in the end or just jumping on some bandwagon.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/13/woman-spends-15k-tattooing-90-body-look-like-dad-12049319/
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