Tattoo Artist’s Beautiful Take On Domestic Violence Scars

A Brazilian tattoo artist is transforming women’s bodies into artistic masterpieces all in the name of domestic violence.

Photos of Flavia Carvalho’s tattoos have gone viral this week after it was discovered she was using her art to cover scars left behind from domestic violence.

She has helped women who have been stabbed, shot at and even raped by their former partners, covering their scarred skin with floral tattoos, birds and lotus flowers.

Called ‘A Pele da FLor’, it means ‘The Skin of the Flower’ and she has made it free for any woman who has been through and survived the trauma of an abusive relationship.

“I started the project quite recently, and I had no idea it would receive this much media attention,” Flavia told Huffingtonpost, from her home in Curtiba, Brasil.

“It all started about two years ago, when I worked with a client who wanted 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 an switchblade.

“When she saw the finished tattoo, she was extremely moved, and that deeply touched me”

Another story that Flavia tells is of a 17-year-old girl who dated an older man and, for months, suffered from his abuse.

“When he wanted to break up with her, he scheduled a meeting, and after they began to fight, he stabbed her several times in her abdomen, and violently raped her”

Another tattoo hides the scar left behind from a bullet wound, another is of a woman who has undergone a mastectomy.

“My services are a hundred percent voluntary, and the only “cost” women need to invest is to choose a design for their tattoos,” says Flavia.

An incredible thing to offer women so they never have to look at their scars and remember their past, but can look at them and see the future.