Lifestyle
‘I Have 800 Tattoos, I’ve Been Banned From The Pub & Uninvited From Xmas Parties’
She’s had tattoos to cope with the impact of being abused as a child.
Being covered in tattoos has made Melissa Sloan’s social life much harder than expected. She’s called Crayola at the school and has recently been barred from the pub, including being uninvited to Christmas parties due to how she looks.
She’s covered up in 800 tattoos, with some done by professionals but most by her partner Luke, 56.
Melissa has had her primary school-aged kids add their additions onto her back and vowed to never stop marking her body.
The South Wales-based said of the ban: “I want to enjoy myself and go for a drink at the pub, but they won’t even let me in. I’m covered in tattoos; I’ve got 800 in total. I get tattoos three times a week. I even do my tattoos at home.” She explained that her skin has fallen off from tattoos that didn’t heal and had been left with scars.
Melissa added: “I will never stop having tattoos until I end.”
In May, the mom as per the DailyMail said her tattoos were a way of coping with the s*xual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her elder brother. “My tattoos help me cover the emotional scars that Gavin Sloan left behind. They’re my mask and I hide from the world behind them. But now that he’s finally in jail, I can begin to feel free.”
46-Year-Old Gavin was jailed for 21 years for a string of sickening rapes and sexual assaults against other children.
Melissa admitted her complaint at the time wasn’t taken seriously by police and that Gavin was never charged with the alleged offenses. Both had grown up in Kidderminster with their mother, Doris, and two other siblings but Melissa is one year younger than Gavin. She said: “As tots, we shared a bath together, as siblings do. But when I was six and he was seven, Gavin touched me down below.”
Melissa added: “I told my mum but we were both small children and she brushed it off. She didn’t believe me.”
“But it carried on and it got worse when I was in my teens. Gavin and I shared a bedroom and he took every chance he could to grope me, and he tried to make me perform s*xual acts on him. He drilled a small hole in the bathroom door to spay on me. I grew up thinking it was normal. He told me it was fine because he was my half-brother.”
The mom claimed she tried to fight back against Gavin, but he was stronger and very aggressive toward her.
She continued: “He called me s*xual names and made inappropriate comments. I saw him kill birds and small animals and I was very frightened of him.” Melissa alleged Gavin got in touch & even as an adult the comments continued. “When I was 35, I made a complaint to the police, because I worried, he would do it to someone else. I was interviewed, but that was it. Nothing came of it, and I went away thinking that I had left it too long.”
So far, the tattoos remain very therapeutic and they’ve been a way of blocking out the past and also the abuse.
On the other hand, 45-Year-Old Melissa has claimed her prison-style tattoos are also standing in the way of her getting a job. On trying to get work, she said: “If someone offered me a job tomorrow, I would go and work – I would take that offer. I expected this in life, I can’t fit in with people as I like to be me and I’m always going to be myself.”
The mom-of-seven got her first inking at age 20 and has since covered her face/body with dyes and symbols.
