NO INKLING
I’m mom with 800 tattoos on my face and body…my kids have got used to people staring at me in the street
A MUM covered head to toe in tattoos has told how she forgets she even has them - despite having more than 800 etchings.
Valerie, 34, from San Diego, California, says she often catches gobsmacked strangers staring at her and finds herself asking her son why.
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The mum-of-two got her first tattoo when she was just 14.
And now 20-years later ink covers a whopping 78 percent of her body - including her face.
She told : "I walk down the street and I'm like 'why are these people staring at me?'.
"I legit ask my son, what's on my face? And he's like 'you have face tattoos'.
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"I forget, they're just a part of me!"
Valerie's standout tattoos include an entirely black left arm and a peculiar mock scar which runs across her eyelids and cheek.
The mum - who works as a painter - sees her tattoos as an expression of art.
But not everyone feels the same and the inking's - especially those on her face - attract a lot of negative attention.
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People have even accused the mum as a bad example to her three-year-old and 15-year-old sons.
Though she says there is a misconception that "only crazy people tattoo their faces" - which she says is wrong.
Despite the negativity, Valerie - who has almost 69,000 followers on Instagram - is proud of her ink.
So much so that she is hellbent on getting more tattoos - including her mum's date of birth on her face.
She explained: "It's the way that I express myself.”
The mum - who describes her look as "a modern-day Harley Quinn" - the colourful henchwoman to the Joker in Batman - cut quite a different appearance before she covered herself in ink.
Astonishing pictures show what seems like a totally different person with no tattoos on her face - she also has different coloured hair.
Though Valerie says she would not have it any other way because "it’s a look I am comfortable with".
But Valerie is not alone in her passion for extortionate amounts of tattoos.
One mum-of-seven has every inch of her face inked with roses, hearts and even an England flag.
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Melissa Sloan from Knighton, on the Powys-Shropshire border says people stop and stare at her constantly and tell her she looks like "something out of another universe".
But the 45-year-old insists: "I like the way I am. You only live once. Do what you want to do."
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