Woman covers body in tattoos – including her eyeball in £10,000 transformation

Maria Spallek got her first tattoo on her 18th birthday and has sort to transform her image ever since, including by getting the whites of her eyeball inked at mega expense

A woman with every part of her body tattooed says she doesn’t have any regrets after splashing out £10,000 on body art, including having the whites of her right eyeball inked.

No place on Maria Spallek’s body has been spared, starting with her tummy when she was 18, extending all the way to having etchings on her face.

The images of her as a fresh-faced tattoo-free 17-year-old are a world away from the look she wears 14 years on.

The 32-year-old’s distinctive look has even inspired others to get tattoos of her on their body, something she called an “unbelievable compliment”.

With almost 38,000 followers on Instagram, the tattoo artist has turned into an ‘influencer’ and has been featured in television documentaries.

But the German’s big profile means she has not been shielded from people’s opinions about her divisive tats, admitting there were “different opinions” about what she has done to herself.

She previously said that two people had come up and spat at her due to her appearance.

The model, who lives in Berlin, said people were “rude” on social media as well, with some questioning her sanity.

“I read comments like, ‘daddy issues’ ‘, ‘that is what mental illness looks like’, and ‘why?… but I don’t care,” she said.

Those closest to Ms Spallek are accepting of her decision to stand out from the crowd, she said — although her mother has expressed reservations in the past.

Her mum questioned whether she had brought her up right, Ms Spallek admitted, when she came home with her face inked.

“I would say the most prominent mod is my eye. But as always there are different opinions about it,” she said.

“My family treats me the same as before.

“I’m still their child, sister, grandchild, aunt. Only my mum had some doubts about the eye and face tattoo.

“She thought she did something wrong in my childhood. But she loves me as always.

“My friends like me not because of my looks, they like me for who I am.”

The idea of transforming her body into a canvas stemmed from seeing her old sister’s tattoos when she was 13.

The fascination was cemented when, while stopped at the side of the road with her family on holiday in 2003, a group of what she describes as “ravers” pulled up next to them.

Fixated by their style and tattoos as they partied to Italian DJ Benny Benassi’s club hit Satisfaction, Maria decided she wanted to follow their lead.

Ms Spallek started her image transformation at a young age, having dying her hair since she was 11.

She still thrives off the feeling of being inked and pierced, with her most recent addition a sphynx cat drawn on her left leg just last month.

In an Instagram post last month, she said: “I feel so good after I got tattooed yesterday.

“I don’t know if you know this feeling but I love it!”.

Ms Spallek braved her first piercing at the age of 13, getting her belly button done.

She now has a host of face punctures and a tongue split.

When turning an adult, she forked out to have tattooed lettering scrawled on her stomach, and she hasn’t looked back since.

“My collection has grown a lot since then, I don’t have an exact number but I would say I’ve spent about £10,000. But I also got a lot of tattoos for free,” she said.

“My transformation has not changed how I feel about myself. It’s more the way I changed my mind.

“I just learned the term ‘extrovert antisocial’ and that is how I feel. I love to stand in front of a big crowd, but I have problems talking one-on-one.

“I was always like that and I think that my modifications just supported that behaviour.

“They make me stand out in the crowd but some people are off-put, so won’t approach me one-on-one.”