I’m a dad with a face tattoo – people say I can’t look after my kids & I get refused entry to pubs but I have no regrets
A DAD with a face tattoo says he has no regrets even though people judge him and he gets refused entry to pubs.
Luke Morrison-Williams, 47, says he often gets stared at in public thanks to his in-your-face inkings.
But the recovery worker says the bold face tattoo helps him when working with people who have struggled with addiction and homelessness.
He says it makes him more relatable to people with “troubled pasts” – but says he’s also been denied entry to clinics as they think he is a patient rather than staff.
Although he regularly gets stared and pointed at in public, Luke wants people to understand that just because he has a face tattoo, it doesn’t mean you’re unemployable.
Luke, from Cannock, Stafffordshire, said: “I’m quite heavily tattooed so it’s just an extension of that – I knew I was going to get some pushback, but it’s been quite full on.
“I’ve not been allowed into pubs or served because of the way I look, and I get stared and pointed at quite often, even in supermarkets, and elderly people look at me like I’ll mug them.”
The dad-of-one went under the tattoo needle in 2009 aged 32, saying he’d always liked the idea of a face inking.
He says he didn’t expect for it to be as frowned upon as it was – but if he could go back, he would still get the ink.
Luke continued: “I work with any kind of addiction, including heroin addiction, I give out methadone scripts.
“It helps because I’m more relatable to some of the people we work with.
“They’ve come out of prison and see me and gravitate towards me because they see me as more equal than someone in a shirt and tie.
“It seems to be a big opinion out there that if you’ve got face tattoo, you’re unemployable – but it’s just a bit of ink on your face.”
Having been in a recovery worker role for 20 years, Luke says he works with people who have experienced addiction and homelessness, as well as troubled youths and offenders.
And he says some people think he shouldn’t be employed in the job he has, but Luke argues the tattoo helps him build trust with patients.
In 2015, Luke was granted full custody of his now 19-year-old daughter – and says people were surprised he had been due to his face inking.
Now, he says he thinks face tattoos are becoming more common and people with bold ink need to be seen in the kind of role he has.
“I think there’s always going to be that taboo, [face tattoos are] becoming more common though,” said Luke.
“When I got full custody people think ‘why would a judge give you custody’ – they say how bad must the mum have been for you to have full custody.
“People see I work alongside the NHS – just because you’ve got a tattoo on your face doesn’t mean you can’t do a job or work with people.
“I’d still get it done knowing what I know now, although there’s quite a lot of negatives there’s a lot of positives too.”
It comes after a mum who got a face tattoo to honour her daughter says trolls claim the inking makes her a “bad parent” – but she doesn’t regret it.
Katie Taylor, 27, has been getting tattoos since she was 18 and wanted a special one to always remind her of her two-year-old daughter.
And another mum says she’s used to being monitored by security guards and strangers crossing the road stare at her thanks to her 14 face tats.
It’s an assumption Claire, 33, from Lincolnshire, used to find frustrating – especially because they couldn’t be more wrong.
A quarter of the British public have tattoos, and one in nine of those have at least one visible tattoo on their head, face, neck, forearms, wrists or hands.
And a mum-of-seven whose face is covered in tattoos says parlours have banned her because she has “gone too far”.
Melissa Sloan, 46, from Wales, gets inked three times a week and carries a tattoo gun around at all times in case inspiration strikes.