Artist creates beautiful tattoos for women scarred by domestic abuse

By Lindsey Robertson From Mashable

Brazilian tattoo artist Flavia Carvalho aims to creatively and beautifully change the way women deal with scarring from domestic violence and mastectomies through her project, “A Pele da Flor,” which translates to “Skin of the Flower”

Carvalho has been providing beautiful tattoos to women as an artistic way to cover up the scarring for two years now.

The best part? Carvalho does the tattoos for free.

“The idea of the project is very simple: It is a voluntary service for tattooing over scars that have resulted from domestic violence or from mastectomies,” she told The Huffington Post in an interview. “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!”

Carvalho says that the idea came to her a few years ago when a client was looking to get a tattoo to cover a large scar on her abdomen.

“She told me that she was at a nightclub, and when she turned down a man who approached her, he stabbed her with a switchblade. When she saw the finished tattoo, she was extremely moved, and that deeply touched me. I was suddenly struck by the idea of providing free tattoos to women who were left with scars following domestic violence or mastectomies. Each tattoo would act as an instrument for empowerment and a self-esteem booster.”

“The feedback I have gotten from women who were helped by this project has been extremely surprising,” says Carvalho. “The sense of affection, sisterhood and camaraderie is deeper than I ever imagined.”

Occasionally, Carvalho even does tattoos to cover up varicose veins.

“I love doing tattoos that restore the self-esteem of women!” she exclaims on her Facebook page.

Despite the amazing work Carvalho is doing, she says that she still acknowledges that there is more to be done.

“It is a grain of sand; the world is full of things that need to be addressed. We have a long way to go regarding protecting women against violence.”

For more on this story go to: http://mashable.com/2015/09/05/tattoos-domestic-violence/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#YRkaP.AQGPqt