A professional tattoo artist with inked eyes and skull implants has revealed that strangers often gasp and shake their heads when they see her striking appearance.
Heidi Zitna has worked in the inking business for nearly 25 years.
The 44-year-old got her first tattoo aged 18, even though she wasn’t initially interested in body art.
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Since then, she’s spent thousands transforming herself into what she calls a living art project.
“Over time, I started to look like a Christmas tree – everything was covered in piercings, a wild jumble, the main thing was that there were lots and lots of them,” Heidi, from Munich, Germany, told Need To Know.
“Later, it became too disharmonious for me, so I removed a lot of them and then concentrated on creating an orderly picture.
“More quality than quantity!”
One of Heidi’s most extreme features is a skull implant under the skin on the back of her hand – a procedure she performed herself.
She’s also tattooed much of her own body and estimates she’s spent around £17,500 (€20,000) in total thanks to discounts from fellow artists.
Heidi said: “Since I work in the industry, I get a lot of things for free or very cheap from colleagues.
“I wanted to turn the whole thing into an art project – I am the canvas for it.”
Her intricate bodywork combines tattoos, piercings, subdermal implants and cuttings, all designed to form what she describes as a complete, harmonious image.
One of her boldest choices was tattooing the whites of her eyes, a risky procedure that involves injecting ink between layers of the eyeball – something that can cause infection or even blindness.
Heidi calls her full-body design one continuous piece, comparing it to a “marionette doll wearing a swimsuit and stockings”.
She added: “Generally, people are interested, as they rarely see such a complete concept.
“Most are fascinated by the tattooed eyes and the implants.
“Of course, every now and then, some people gasp and shake their heads at the sight of me. It’s not for everyone.”
For now, Heidi is still working to complete her transformation, with only a few hard-to-reach spots – like the backs of her thighs and her behind – left to be tattooed by other artists.
