A woman who has covered most of her body with black ink has revealed the cruel comments she receives online – including someone telling her the “world must be ending” due to her appearance.
Suara AlaM, originally known as Samantha, started her body modification journey after covering both of her arms entirely in black ink in a bid to heal from her childhood.
For the artist, as she grew up in a strict household, she didn’t get her first inking aged 29, with her first tattoo of a lion.
When covering this up, she decided to take her transformation to the next level and alongside covering her arms, she also had her neck, throat, chest, and back inked entirely black.
Now, she also boasts a scleral tattoo with purple eyeballs, stretched ear lobes, and has even pierced her own septum, nipples, and the bridge of her nose.
However, not everyone has been so accepting of her unique look, with the 39-year-old being told the “world must be ending” because of her appearance.
“Someone once said: ‘Worst tattoo I have ever seen, looks like you forgot your arm on the grill,’” Suara, from The Netherlands, told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“A lot of people also really don’t understand why someone would do this to their body, and in the tattoo community itself, there are artists who dislike it very much.
“Some of the comments include: ‘This is blackfishing’ and ‘You Caucasians always try to steal from our culture.’
“As I don’t want to disregard their feelings in any way, I can only say for myself, that I haven’t started my blackwork journey because I want to have black skin.
“I get a dark grey or blueish tone after the tattoo has healed.
“I hope there is understanding for the fact that my own journey has no goal to offend anyone in any way.”
Suara hasn’t totalled up the cost of her look, but considers the modifications as part of the way she dresses, estimating that 30% of her body is covered in ink.
Her favourite tattoo to date? Her purple eyeballs.
She said: “I can say that it was love at first sight, as I love the colour of deep purple.
“They say that eyes are the window to the soul — I do believe that my soul radiates in a lovely purplish colour.
“With the purple eyeball tattoo, I can now show my true colour to the world through my eyes.”
Suara, who is dedicating her life to healing others through sound in an off-grid yurt, has said that the process has helped her on a spiritual level with past trauma.
She said: “In a spiritual sense, at least for me, going through this pain, where needles scrape old layers off of you, opening up the outside to let something inside of you out, helps me in my healing process of old wounds.
“You bleed out old trauma, and you cover it with black ink just like you would black out old negative sentences with a pencil to change a story.
“Then seeing your skin starting to crack and flake in the peeling phase, slowly showing the new you, is very beautiful for me.
“It is like a deep transformation, just as a snake sheds its skin.
“Thinking back, I have never felt good in my own skin during most parts of my life, even feeling like a failure at times — like a mistake.
“As part of an identical twin, I also was never seen as 100% my own individual being.
“We were treated like two together instead of individually – even in school, with the same clothes and the same look.
“This journey is something for me alone, in which I want to have complete freedom in decision making, not having the obligation to ask permission first, so that it is my own responsibility.
“I can create and become who I want to be, instead of staying how people around me expect it or society describes it.
“It feels like I can take back my own control of my own body, my own life and this in itself is healing, while I could not do this in the past.”
Suara hopes to share her journey in a bid to encourage others to try out new things, even if it’s not accepted in society, as life is too short.
She added: “Life should be full of experiences that give you something more than just money.
“Appearance is a lot more, in my opinion than just body modifications or tattoos — it also includes the way you dress and what you do with your hair, for example.
“In my opinion, body modifications and tattoos are a lot more than just altering how you look.
“I do this for me and not for the outside world.”
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