Teen wakes up to too many stars tattoo on face

Right: A distraught Kimberley Vlaeminck speaks on her mobile phone at home in Belgium today - the 56 tattoos still healing across her face. (EPA/Daily Mail)

WTF was she--or he--thinking?

Kimberley Vlaeminck said she fell asleep while tattoo artist Rouslan Toumaniantz (god help me with these names) tattooed her face with 56 stars. She says she wanted three modest stars tattooed near her eye but awoke to "a nightmare."

"I woke up when he was starting to tattoo my nose... I counted 56 stars, it is frightening," she said.

Starface says she fell asleep during the procedure, that is, while getting 56 stars tattoed ON HER FACE.

Now, my friends, with all due respect to this girl, anyone who has had a frantic needle drill ink into the skin knows that there's no fucking way one can fall asleep during such a procedure, especially when it's being done on the face where nerve endings and bone galore, which in tattoo world translates to a holly-fuck-this-hurts-like-hell experience you're not soon to forget.

Toumaniantz denies Starface's claim that he misunderstood what she wanted. He alleges she was awake while he was working on her face and happy with the results until her father and boyfriend saw the stars. (The look on their faces must have been good enough for a MasterCard "priceless" ad and worth the tattoo, if you ask me.)

"She was awake and looked in the mirror several times as the procedure was being done," said Toumaniantz, who works at Tattoo Box in Kortrijk. "She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started," he told a Belgian newspaper.

Her boyfriend reportedly dumped her, and that's when the shit hit the fan.

Now, she's suing him for £10,000 (about $16,400) after she paid £55 ($90) for "the graffiti that has ruined my life," claiming Toumanaintz, who speaks Romani, misunderstood her French and English.

"I explicitly said in my native tongue, French, and also in a little bit of English when he looked confused, that I wanted three little stars only near my left eye," she said.

"They are saying things now like I doped her or hypnotized her. What rubbish!...She asked for 56 stars and that’s what she got," he said.

Left: Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the tattoo parlour, says Kimberley asked for 56 stars. (Daily Mail)

A witness who was present and was questioned by police confirmed his story, "but be that as it may, Kimberley is unhappy and it is not my wish to have an unsatisfied client," Toumaniantz said. "There is a way to remove the tattoos with the help of a laser. I accept to pay for half the cost."

The surgery to remove the stars would cost £8,500 ($14,000), but even the most advanced laser techniques would leave deep white marks all across Kimberley's face--which means she would go from Starface to Scarface.

The tattoo artist, who's covered with tattoos and piercings from head to toe, said he doesn't regret the incident. "To tell you the truth, this has given me some publicity."

Kimberley says she wants to keep the stars on her forehead but have the rest removed. Hmm...

"It is terrible for me," she said. "I cannot go out on to the street, I am so embarrassed. I just look horrible."

Jules Clocher, a Belgian psychologist, said: "The trauma this girl must be feeling is indescribable. She feels like a circus freak--and no wonder, because she looks like one."

LOL!

Toumanaintz said that from now on he will get written consent from clients before he begins tattooing. I'm surprised he has been working without these up until now, though one cannot compare Belgium to the United States of Lawsuits.

SO--Is she lying about wanting three vs. 56 stars because of her family's reaction? Keep in mind she's a teenager, and it's a proven fact that teenagers lie whenever their lips move.

Yet, why would she ask for 56 stars as he claims she did? How would that number be significant to an 18-year-old girl? It's not like she's celebrating 56 years of marriage or was born on the 56th day of any month or in the 56th month of a Neptunian year. Maybe she meant to memorialized the 56 score she got on a Math test, but somehow I doubt it. Or perhaps she's had a boyfriend for 56 days, but by the next day it would've been 57. Same with the number of times she might have gotten laid. Could she (or anyone) be that stupid?

But, then again, why would a tattoo artist--and owner of his own parlor--draw the Milky Way on her face if all she wanted was a ternary stellar system? Was he high or on some sort of tattooing automatic pilot? He was definitely seeing stars...

And the being asleep part...was she so low on energy, benzos, opiates or who the fuck knows what that she could not communicate what she wanted done to her face and even fall asleep while she was being marked for life?

We'll probably never know for sure.

Frankly, I don't see this girl asking for 56 stars, but I also don't see this dude risking his business by doing something like this. She was stupid for (a) allowing someone with whom there was a language barrier to tattoo her, and (b) asking for a tattoo on her face. But she's 18 years old and, therefore, inexperienced.

This was a misunderstanding, if you ask me. So my vote goes for them split the tattoo removal cost in half and end of story...for him, at least.

Sources: BBC, UK's Daily Mail, Lemon Drop
Copyright © 2009