Mental illness is savage, acting as an obstacle to the many people who suffer from its various forms. Healthy Place says that depression and other types of mental health challenges can lead individuals towards unhealthy ways of coping with their pain.
According to statistics, 2 million cases of self-harm are reported annually in the United States, with 90% of self-harmers beginning the practice in their pre-teen or teenage years. Now though, tattoo artists around the world are helping people overcome their self-harming tendencies one tattoo at a time…
Aoife Lovett from Condalkin, Ireland, is no stranger to self-harm, having suffered from depression and mental illness throughout her life.
Although Aoife no longer feels the need to hurt herself to release her pain, she says her scars are a constant reminder of her haunted past.
She tells Independent.ie, “It’s very hard when you’re a couple years clean from doing it, and every day you’re constantly reminded of what you did.”
“It brings back memories of how you felt then.”
There’s a lot of shame that comes with it, and guilt, especially when you’re around your family.”
For years, she tried to find a tattoo artist to cover her scars, but none would take on the task.
“A lot of artists just won’t cover them because it’s a lot of work, and they’d just not rather take the risk of it looking bad,” she tells Independent.ie.
Ryan Kelly, a tattoo artist from Ink Factory, confirms, explaining, “A lot of tattoo artists avoid doing tattooing over scars. Understandably, to a certain degree, because obviously if you want your best piece, it’s going to be better on flat skin.”
But Ryan Kelly is no ordinary tattoo artist, having created the Scars Behind Beauty movement, specifically dedicated to helping people who have struggled with self-harm.
Ryan was inspired by a client in similar circumstances to Aoife. He recalls the events to Independent.ie, saying:
“A girl just randomly came in looking for a tattoo to cover up some scars, and I got talking to her, and she started telling me her story and at the end of that, it didn’t really feel right to charge her. It kind of felt like it meant more to her than that.”
Now, Ryan helps victims of self-harm by covering their scars with beautiful designs— and the best part?
He does it absolutely FREE.
“I just started to do one a week,” he says. “I started getting people in once every Saturday and I covered them up.”
“Once I posted it on social media, it kind of blew up. I’ve just been doing it every week since then, and I now have close to 300 people on the waiting list now.”
In an interview with Independent.ie, Aoife says, “I think what Ryan is doing is brilliant because it’s very hard to get someone to tattoo over [self-harm scars], and it’s such a meaningful thing to me to get them covered and get them covered well.”
“It’s very hard to find an artist who will do that and is passionate about it.”
“Ryan is helping people move on,” she continues. “It’s putting something beautiful over something ugly. It gives you a new sense of freedom and you get your confidence back.
The see more of Ryan’s Scars Behind Beauty tattoos, check out his Instagram, ryanseanthepirate.
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