A 46-year-old woman whose face is covered in tattoos believes people do not see her as a human as she finds it difficult to get a job.
Melissa Sloan from Wales has more than 800 pieces of body art, with her boyfriend Luke as the artist.
She receives three new designs per week in the comfort of their home and even though she’s proud of her body, it has led to challenges in her career.
“I’m not proud of saying it but I haven’t worked for 20 years,” Sloan told the Daily Star. “I have applied for jobs and they look at me and say ‘what is this’, like I’m not a human being. I would love a job and prove them all wrong because all the time they keep saying to me ‘no one will give you a job.’”
She said that people do not like her because of her tattoos and claimed that they look at her like ‘you’re nothing, you’re worthless.’
“They don’t want people like us with tattoos on their face,” she went on. “They don’t understand us, do they? We’re just exactly the same as anyone else. We breathe the same, we live the same – but they just don’t want to know.”
Speaking about her troubles with finding a job, Sloan 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.”
Sloan’s appearance have also affected her personal life as her tattoos have isolated her from school events.
“When I go to my child’s school I don’t get invited (to parties),” she expressed, adding that she watches her kids’ performances from outside the classroom window.
Still, the mother-of-two insists that she has no plans on stopping herself from getting new designs as she is proud of her body art.
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