Women Get Free Tattoos To Wipe Away Domestic Violence Scars

An artist is allowing women to get free tattoos. But the women getting the tattoos are not just any women, they are the victims of domestic violence.

According to The Huffington Post, artist Flavia Carvalho is spearheading the effort to ink victims of domestic violence as a way to wipe away the scars of domestic violence. She explained the project and how she runs the project alone.

“The idea of the project is very simple: it is a voluntary service for tattooing over scars that have resulted from domestic violence… I run the project alone, since no other tattoo artist has expressed interest in participating. I started the project quite recently, and I had no idea it would receive this much media attention. It began very spontaneously. As I said, my services are a hundred percent voluntary, and the only ‘cost’ women need to invest is to choose a design for their tattoos!”

As demonstrated on The Huffington Post, the artistry offered by Carvalho is not only allowing women to get free tattoos, but is truly turning scars and memories of horror into a beautiful canvas that disguises the pain the women have endured.

As Carvalho explained, the project’s name – “‘A Flor da pele’ (‘deeper than skin’) – speaks of how strongly we feel when facing an extremely difficult of challenging situation. ‘A Pele da Flor’ also alludes to the fact that all of us women are like flowers and deserve to have our skin protected and embellished.”

But the project, which largely focuses on victims of domestic violence, also helps those who have been impacted by other tragedies in life. According to Bored Panda, the project is helping cancer victims and others with medical challenges take back their bodies.

“For two years, Carvalho has helped women cover scars left from knives and bullets, and from mastectomies as well,” Bored Panda writer Martynas Klimas wrote. “She’s transforming these unpleasant mementos into a tool of empowerment and beauty.”

For a day and age where one in five American adults now have a tattoo of some sort (according to Harris Interactive), the trend Carvalho started in Brazil is unlikely to draw much surprise but instead could inspire other programs across the world.

As for Carvalho’s program that allows women to get free tattoos, she told HuffPost that she has floated the idea to a few different non-governmental organizations, explaining, “the Municipal Secretariat of Policies for Women, for instance, has applauded the idea.”

[Photo via Flickr Creative Commons]