A FATHER with a tattoo on his face says he has no regrets even though people judge him and he has been banned from bars.
Luke Morrison-Williams, 47, says he is often noticed in public thanks to his face tattoos.
3
3
But the recovery worker says the bold face tattoo helps him when working with people who have struggled with addiction and homelessness.
He says this makes him more relatable to people with “troubled pasts” – but says he has also been denied entry into clinics because they think he is a patient and not an employee.
Although he is regularly stared at and pointed at in public, Luke wants people to understand that just because he has a tattoo on his face doesn’t mean you’re unemployed.
Luke, from Cannock, Staffordshire, said: “I’m quite tattooed so it’s just an extension of that – I knew I would get some resistance but it’s been quite intense.
“I’m not allowed into pubs or served because of my appearance, and I’m stared at and pointed at frequently, even in supermarkets, and elderly people look at me as if I’m going to rob them.”
The father-of-one went under the tattoo needle in 2009, aged 32, saying he had always liked the idea of inking his face.
He says he didn’t expect it to be as frowned upon as it was – but if he could go back, he’d still get the ink.
Luke continued: “I work with any type of addiction, including heroin addiction, I distribute methadone scripts.
“It helps because I identify more with some of the people we work with.
“They come out of prison and they see me and they gravitate towards me because they see me as more equal than someone in a shirt and tie.
“There seems to be a big opinion out there that if you have a tattoo on your face you are unemployed – but it’s just a bit of ink on your face.”
Having worked as a recovery worker for 20 years, Luke says he works with people who have experienced addiction and homelessness, as well as troubled youth and offenders.
And he says some people think he shouldn’t work the job he has, but Luke argues that tattooing helps him build trust with patients.
In 2015, Luke was granted full custody of his now 19-year-old daughter – and says people were surprised because of the face tattoo.
Now, he says he thinks face tattoos are becoming more common and that people with bold ink need to be seen in the type of role he plays.
“I think there will always be this taboo, [face tattoos are] It’s becoming more common,” Luke said.
“When I got full custody, people thought ‘why would a judge give you custody’ – they said how bad the mother must have been for you to get full custody.
“People see that I work alongside the NHS – just because you have a tattoo on your face doesn’t mean you can’t do a job or work with other people.
“I would still do it knowing what I know now, although there are a lot of negatives, there are a lot of positives too.”
It comes after a mother who got a face tattoo to honor her daughter says trolls claim the tattoo makes her a “bad mother” – but she has no regrets.
Katie Taylor, 27, has been getting tattoos since she was 18 and wanted a special one that would always remind her of her two-year-old daughter.
And another mother says she’s used to being monitored by security guards and strangers crossing the street staring at her thanks to her 14 face tattoos.
It’s an assumption that Claire, 33, from Lincolnshire, used to find frustrating – especially as they couldn’t be more wrong.
A quarter of the British public have tattoos, and one in nine of them have at least one visible tattoo on their head, face, neck, forearms, wrists or hands.
And a mother of seven, whose face is covered in tattoos, says salons banned her because she “went too far”.
Melissa Sloan, 46, from Wales, gets tattoos three times a week and carries a tattoo gun at all times in case inspiration strikes.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
