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After getting over their initial shock, the children he teaches look past his appearance, but it’s a different story for their parents.
Sylvain Hélaine’s entire body is covered in tattoos, including his tongue, gums and palms. Even the whites of his eyes are blacked out.
The 38-year-old teacher from France says that his primary school pupils don’t judge him for his looks.
He adds that while it takes the children a few minutes to accept him, it usually takes "the parents two days, and the grandparents two weeks."
“I currently have 29 kids in my class,” he says. “I teach kids aged between seven and 11. They don't have questions; the main change for them is that I’m male as this is typically an older female job.”
His appearance hasn’t always been accepted.
In 2020 he lost his job at a Paris kindergarten after a parent complained that he was scaring their child. Sylvain was banned from teaching young children by local education authorities, but he refused to give up on his career.
At the time, a spokesperson for the local education authority said an agreement had been reached with Sylvain for him to teach an older class.
READ MORE | This mom already has 800 tattoos – and she still plans to have many more done
Sylvain got his first tattoo when he moved to London in 2012, where he taught as a private school.
“I was looking for something. I had a crisis thinking I wasn't doing anything with my life,” he says.
When he visited Brixton in London, he noticed many people had tattoos, including those in jobs he did not expect to see tattoos.
“The banker at the HSBC had his neck tattooed. And the guy in McDonald's had both sleeves done – it was an eye-opener for me.”
He decided to create a new identity for himself through body art. His first inking took three-and-a-half hours to complete. Since then, he’s spent about 460 hours under the needle.
He's also had his nipples and belly button surgically removed so that he could “be a better canvas".
Sylvain, who's probably the most tattooed teacher in the world, says he’s spent close to R1,4 million on his body art. He shares his transformation with his 100 000 Instagram followers, who know him as Freaky Hoody.
Despite mixed reactions to his appearance, Sylvian considers his tattoos his second skin.
“I see my art as only one piece, one full body suit that's evolved with time. I'm on my second layer [of tattoos] now.”
“I will end up fully black maybe when I'm 80 or 90, as it's easier to be tattooed in darker tones. Tattoos are infinite, being covered layer after layer is infinite and full of hope.”
SOURCES: DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, REUTERS.COM, BBC.COM
