“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

In the case of Kimberly Vlaeminck, she has no choice but to look at the stars any time she looks in the mirror.

The 18 year old Belgian girl and her family are suing a tattoo artist for tattooing 53-56 stars of varying size on her face.

As with any story, there are two sides here.

Kimberly claims that she went to the Romanian tattoo artist and requested three small dots under her eye. The artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, then convinced her that three stars instead ofthe dots would be more visually appealing, to which she agreed. She then claims that the pain was so great during her tattoo that she went to sleep to avoid feeling it, and woke up to find, much to her dismay, that she had 56 tattoos on her face, all on one side, going from above her eyebrow, to her nose and back across her cheek to her chin. She is now suing the artist, saying that he didnt speak French or English well so he misunderstood her, and would like the courts to require him to pay for a lazer removal procedure, which will cost several thousand dollars worth of money. The claim has also been made (though it has not been said whether made by her or her lawyer) that she was drugged or hypnotized by the artist so he could do this tattoo without her knowing.

The tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, claims that the girl came into his shop knowing exactly what she wanted. While she did not give him an exact number of stars, she explained that she wanted them to be across the entire side of her face, of different sizes, and gave Toumaniantz the liberty of deciding the exact number, which he discussed with her and gave her an estimate of "around 55 stars" before he even started tattooing. He also claims that she was awake the entire time and even looked in the mirror several times during the tattooing procedure to see the progress he had made.

See a picture of the tattoo here

So heres my opinion:
1. There is no way she was asleep during her tattoo unless she was drugged or on some sort of drug. I have 4 tattoos, and even the ones that didnt hurt, theres no way you would sleep through it. Some of these tattoos are right on her brow bone and under her eye. Anyone who has a tattoo on a bone knows that it is very painful. When I got a tattoo on my ribs and asked the artist how it would feel, he said to me "getting a tattoo on a bone feels like having your **** slammed in a car door". And while I dont know what that would feel like, Id say what I felt and that description sounded about right to me. Furthermore, if the pain was so great, as she claims, she wouldnt have been able to fall asleep. Sleep is caused by total relaxation or exhaustion, and unless she ran a triathalon before coming to get her tattoo or (once again) was drugged or using a depressent, theres no way she would be sleeping.

2. If the artist didnt speak the language well, how is it possible for him to make all of his statements in both english and french in court without the use of a translator? Did he just magically learn the language overnight? Doubtful.

3. Why exactly would a tattoo artist drug someone just to do a tattoo? I dont know about in other countries, but I know in America if a tattoo artist has a tattoo he/she really would like to do, they can generally find someone fairly easily who will let them do it on them, and often times do it for a free or discounted rate in exchange for letting them use a photo of it in their publications/advertisements. If a tattoo artist were to drug someone for the sake of a tattoo, they would obviously be caught, lose their lisence, their job, their shop (if they own one) and who knows what else as a result of that. I highly doubt Rouslan Toumaniantz would put everything on the line for the sake of 56 stars on someone else's face.

4. Didnt the 18 year old girl notice something was wrong when it was done? If she was truly unhappy, she should not have paid for the tattoo that is now covering the entire right side of her face. However, she did pay 50 pounds (currently equivelant to around 83 american dollars) and even left a tip for the tattoo artist.

5. This is not something I read, just a question I have...I was wondering if the artist did this tattoo free hand? He could have, but I dont think that he would have because the face has so many contours and changes in shape, it would be much more logical to draw the design on a seperate paper then use transfers to put a non-permanent ink drawing on the surface of her skin. That is how a lot of tattoo artists in America do their work, and If that is the case, I would assume that he showed her the trasfer on her skin before he started tattooing, so she could make sure that she liked the placement and the size of each one, etc. Again, that is just something I was wondering upon reading up on this lawsuit.

All in all, I have to agree with the Tattoo artist, who claims that the girl was more than satisfied until she got home and her boyfriend and father became extremely angry with her. That is when she told them she was asleep, possibly drugged, what have you.


It was later released that the 18 year old girl is admitting to having lied because her father and boyfriend were so angry, and didnt think that he would want to sue the artist.

She said that she was thrilled and "initially adored them", only now she realizes that she looks "like a freak" (her words, not mine) and has altered her future and the rest of her life because of one decision she made without thinking it through.

The kicker?
The tattoo artist initially agreed to pay for 1/2 of all costs to have her tattoos removed because he doesnt want to have an unsatisfied client.
However, once the girl admitted to having lied, he withdrew his cash offer and is now saying he will require all customers, regardless of age or tattoo, to sign a detailed page describing the exact tattoo that they want.
The girl even wants to keep the ones on her forehead and temple because she thinks theyre
"cute".

Really?
Yeah, that just happened.