"I tattoo people's scars for free - everyone deserves to feel beautiful"

A tattoo artist is covering people's scars for free - and says "everyone deserves to feel good about themselves".

Kayleigh Marsh, 30, has only been offering the service for a week but has already received thousands of messages.

Although she specifically focuses on domestic abuse and self-harm survivors, she says she’s happy to cover other types of scar tissue with “anything pretty”.

Kayleigh, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said: “I’m covered head-to-toe in tattoos - and I get my scars covered all the time, it makes me feel more confident.

“I had a scar on my ribs covered up the other day, and it just made me feel better.

“Being a tattoo artist is like being a therapist, sometimes - and I think hairdressers could probably say the same.

“You spend three, four hours with your clients - and they talk to you about anything.

“Sometimes you make a difference when you’re not even realising it.”

Kayleigh was inspired to start her free service after a client came in with “old scars” last week (10/5).

She was a mum-of-one and worried her scars were scaring her child.

After confiding in Kayleigh and breaking down in tears, the tattooist offered to give her 23 tattoos for free.

“The girl had only come in for a cover-up,” she said.

“But I saw she had quite a lot of old scars.

“I couldn’t help but say ‘what’s all this?’.

“She was getting tearful - and I just wanted to make sure she was OK.

“I offered to cover them all up for free - it made me feel like I was doing some good.”

Kayleigh noticed she had 20 unfilled bookings for the rest of the year - mostly during the evening.

So she decided to advertise her new service - tattooing people’s scars for free, with as many as they like.

She quickly received “thousands” of messages, and has since managed to fill 10 of her empty slots.

She said: “I’ve had over 1,000 messages since I advertised on TikTok.

“I’ve taken 10 bookings from people with domestic violence scars, self-harm scars, all sorts.

“Complete strangers have called me - and we’ve both ended up crying down the phone to each other.

“I’m just glad I can make some people feel better.

“I’ve only filled 10 of the slots - I’m wanting to reserve the last 10 for people who need it the most urgently.

“And they can have anything they want done - anything they think looks pretty.”

Kayleigh loves having the opportunity to have open conversations with her clients and thinks other tattoo artists should be doing the same.

“It’s a lot easier for people in need to talk to a stranger,” she said.

“People talk openly to me.

“We’ll go backwards and forwards - and people leave their appointments feeling better about their lives.

“You never know the impact you have - you might have just convinced someone in an abusive relationship to tell a friend, or family member.

“I want to encourage other tattoo artists to do the same thing.”