Teen with Self-Harm Scars Rejected by Tattoo Shops. Artist Sees Her & Can’t Ignore It

 
“It’s very hard when you’re a couple of years clean from doing it and every day you’re constantly reminded of what you did.” says 19-year-old Aoife Lovett that now credits her beautiful new tattoo that covers up her old battle scars from bouts of depression she’s had to face. Yet before that could happen she was faced with a challenge: tattoo parlors were constantly turning her away because of the difficulty of tattooing on scarred skin. That is until Ryan Sean K, a Dublin based tattoo artist, heard of her.
 

Artist Ryan Kelly had dealt with situations like these previously after losing mentor and best friend the previous year while having dealt with challenges of anxiety along his life. Shortly after, a young girl approached him about getting tattoos over her scarring to put that piece of her life behind her, and that was the start for Scars Behind Beauty, a non-profit organization that offers free professional tattoos to people who have struggled with self-harm.

“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.”

– Ryan Kelly

Ryan, who works out of The Ink Factory, turned her scars into a beautiful dagger piercing through a rose, showcasing the battles she faced and the new page that she turned. See the final results below.

A post shared by Ryan Sean K (@ryanseanthepirate) on Aug 18, 2017 at 8:47am PDT

More and more tattoo artists have been creating organizations like these across the globe to support this disenfranchised community and to help them get past this challenging time in their lives. Artists like Poppy Segger of the UK and Michael Truitt, who had dealt with self-harm in his younger years, have taken the helm to give these fighters something to be proud of where once was something that embarrassed them.

A post shared by Poppy (@poppysmallhandstattoo) on Nov 21, 2016 at 11:04am PST

A post shared by Michael Truitt (@rainbow.eagle) on Aug 13, 2017 at 11:20am PDT