Kayleigh Peach tattooed her face to avoid landing a ‘normal job’
More than 60 percent of Kayleigh Peach’s body is tattooed, but she had an unusal reason for inking her face with a series of messages.
A British woman was so determined to avoid landing herself a boring job that she tattooed her face and even etched the word “cursed” across the top of her right eye.
Kayleigh Peach, 26, from Birmingham, always dreamt of becoming a tattoo artist, but her crippling shyness often hindered her efforts to secure work in tattoo parlours.
Kayleigh told local newspaper the Birmingham Mail, she decided to tattoo her face so that conventional businesses would refuse to hire her.
This, she felt, would force her to follow her true passion, despite her introverted nature.
In an interview with the BBC, Kayleigh said she finally tattooed her face at age 24 when she secured work as an apprentice tattoo artist.
“I got it so that I couldn’t get a normal job, so I would have to persevere with what I was doing,” she said.
While tattoos are usually accepted in contemporary offices, Kayleigh said throat and face tattoos were still viewed as “more extreme”.
“So I had my face tattooed to force myself to become a tattoo artist,” she said.
Kayleigh’s “cursed” tattoo came at a time when she struggled with her confidence and mental health.
She also had a rose tattooed on her face which represents “romance and beauty”, as well as an array of leaves on the other side of her face.
“This symbolises new beginnings for me in my life,” she said.
She told the BBC she loved collecting pictures on her skin so she could “look back and remember when you got it, where you were, and what it means”.
“The tattoos on my face make me unique. Even when you get old and wrinkled, it makes your skin a bit prettier.”
Kayleigh’s journey to become a tattoo artist has impacted her relationship with her family, who were not always supportive of her choices.
When she came home, age 19, sporting a tattoo that covered the majority of her chest, her father and stepmother weren’t happy and said she looked thuggish.
“They said I couldn’t be bridesmaid at their wedding,” she said. “We were having problems anyway.”
Her father has recently begun to accept his daughter’s profession.
“He’s a lot more accepting now that I do it as a job. I’ve actually tattooed him,” she told the BBC.
About 60 per cent of Kayleigh’s body is inked and, despite a long, hard apprenticeship, she is now a self-employed tattoo artist.
“My boss says I’m one of the busiest junior artists he’s ever seen,” she told the BBC. “Your mind is never stagnant; you are always creating, learning and meeting new people.”
Her next goal is to cover her entire body in tattoos.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop, I would like my whole body to be covered in tattoos,” she told the Birmingham Mail.
“I might have two little ones by my eyes but no more on my face after that.”