This morning I woke up and looked at my face in horror. There were deep grooves all over; it looked like I’d taken part in a cheap horror movie with a bad makeup budget. Turns out I just slept really awkwardly on my pillow. But I think I can almost feel Kimberley Vlaminck’s pain. Vlaminck is the 18-year-old girl who claimed she told a tattoo artist that she wanted three stars on her face. She then claimed she fell asleep while being inked, and woke up with an extra 53 stars in place. Considering how cranky I was just to see some deep faux-wrinkles show up unexpectedly on my face, I can only imagine a bunch of tattooed stars.

Not surprisingly, Kimberly’s admitted her suspicious story is complete bull, and she made it up when her father got mad at her.

Kimberley Vlaminck, the girl who claimed her face was tattooed with 56 stars while she slept, has admitted she made up the story. Ms Vlaminck, 18, had initially insisted she went into the tattoo parlour requesting three stars, but dozed off during the procedure and awoke in horror to find a veritable galaxy on her face. She then vowed to sue the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, for $20,000 for failing to understand her instructions.

“It is terrible for me,” she said last week… I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak.” But under a wave of cynicism from the public Ms Vlaminck has finally admitted she wanted all the stars and was “fully aware” of what Mr Toumaniantz was doing… “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them,” she said. “But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the that the tattooist mad made a mistake.”

Mr Toumaniantz had previously agreed to help pay for the tattoo removal saying: “Kimberley is unhappy and it is not my wish to have an unsatisfied client.” But according to the UK’s Daily Telegraph this offer has now been withdrawn, although Mr Toumaniantz concedes he will now get written consent from his clients.

[From LiveNews]

Obviously there were some substantial holes in Kimberly’s story from the beginning. The idea that she fell asleep while having her face tattooed is quite the stretch. I’ve never had any tattoos but from the stories I’ve heard, that’d be nearly impossible. She was also suing the tattoo artist because she communicated her instructions to him in her native French as well as English. He’s Romanian and said he understood, however she claimed he didn’t, and that’s how the mix up occurred. Obviously that’s all bull, but to think the guy was still willing to help pay for laser surgery is pretty amazing. Talk about customer service.

Obviously the tattoo artist is the only real victim here, but I can’t help feeling a little badly for Kimberly. This is the type of story where normally you’d just chastise the person for being so dumb. But Sky News interviewed her (clip below) and she does seem genuinely distraught and in pain. It’s true she brought it on herself, but when I think back on the stupid things I could have done at 18… I’m sure most of us are glad we don’t have permanent reminders of our poor decisions. Kimberly’s so young, and she’s going to have to look like this the rest of her life. Even if she gets laser surgery, it still leaves significant scars that’ll make her face look very unattractive. I’m sure that, although she said she originally thought it looked cool, she’s filled with regret now – and that’ll only grow with time.