(Washington Insider Magazine) – Alyssa Zebrasky, who got a full face tattoo in 2018 at the behest of a “toxic” boyfriend, had the ink removed in 12 painful 30-minute sessions and managed to recover from drugs.
Removal of Tattoo
An Ohio woman whose mugshots went viral for her eerie skeleton and spider web tattoos on her face underwent a dramatic transformation after undergoing grueling laser treatments to remove the ink.
Alyssa Zebrasky, 31, first made headlines in December 2018 after she was arrested in Ohio on larceny and drug possession charges.
His mugshot featured his forehead covered in a spider web tattoo, along with a Day of the Dead-inspired skull design around his eyes, cheeks, nose and lips.
In April 2019, Zebrasky and her macabre ink made headlines again after she was again pulled over by police.
But now, more than three years later, Zebrasky has turned his life around after completing a court-ordered rehabilitation program.
As part of his recovery process, he has decided to get rid of all the tattoos he has on his face in an attempt to forget about an ex-boyfriend.
Zebrasky said he had agreed to acquire the grim body art more than four years ago while he was in a toxic relationship with his then-partner, who at the time was in a gang he wanted to join. To be part of the group, the boyfriend told her that he needed to get tattoos on his face.
The woman went under the needle during two grueling sessions in June 2018, coming out looking like a nightmare, Kennedy News reported.
Zebrasky found herself in police custody three times in six months, including an incident with her ex that resulted in a brief police chase, in which they blamed her for “needing to go to the bathroom”.
After undergoing rehab, Zebrasky decided to get rid of the tattoos permanently, so he turned to a Texas-based charity called INK-nitiatve, which helps people remove unwanted body art for a fresh start. no stigma.
With the support of her family and her new partner, with whom she has “the healthiest relationship” she’s ever had, Zebrasky has been documenting her deinking process on social media.
“Looking back at those photos, I feel disappointed in myself,” she said of the previous viral photos of her. “But I have to remember that she hadn’t worked on myself or tried to learn to love me like I have now.
“So I feel proud because change is possible and it is possible to heal and learn new things. I like being able to look back and see my personal growth.”
Despite having tattoos all over her body, heavy equipment worker Zebrasky only wants to remove the ones from her face and hands due to their association with her ex, who she said pushed her to get the tattoos, even choosing to to the dead of design.
“At first I told her no and then she kept talking about it. (Now I think it was) so no one else would like me,” she said.
The Ohio woman added that while she was in jail, her then-boyfriend visited her only twice.
“I have to think about that every time I look in the mirror,” she said. “I started to mentally heal from everything I went through with him.”
The 31-year-old machine worker says people stared at her wherever she went, which made her feel uncomfortable.
Zebrasky began the grueling ink removal process in October 2019 at Pittsburgh Removery as part of her quest to feel “normal” and be seen as such by those around her.
“I go into a store and people look at me. It makes me uncomfortable,” she said in a testimonial shared on the tattoo removal clinic’s website. “I want them to look at me as a normal person. Live my life like everyone else.”
Zebrasky was told she would need a dozen 20-minute sessions to clear her face.
“When I started going, they did my cheeks, forehead and hands because, like a tattoo, your body can only heal one part at a time,” she explained. “Now the cheeks are gone, but we haven’t started around the mouth yet.”
“The initial pain from the laser I would associate with having a rubber band snapping against the skin, that’s what the laser feels like, and then it hurts for 30 minutes,” she said.
“Then it swirls and there’s a little bit of pain, almost like you’re spilling oil from the stove on your hand, that’s the closest I can compare to what it feels like,” she added.
Becca, a Removery technician who has worked with Zebrasky, stated on the company’s website that she was initially “intimidated” by her client’s appearance.
“I have never seen so many tattoos on someone’s face,” she said. “We didn’t know what her background was; why she went to jail”. But she Becca said that she soon discovered that the 31-year-old woman was “sweet” and “fun”.
As the tattoos faded from her skin, Zebrasky said she now “accepted” her face and she hopes that by being honest about her experiences, she will help others in a similar situation.
“For a long time, I felt that she was not free. Like I had to live a certain way because of the things that were going on in my life with addiction and self-harm,” Zebrasky said in her testimony. “And now, I feel like I don’t have to live like this anymore. I can live my life, I’m finally free.”
This article is written by Alejandro Gonzalez.
