A mother of-five has warned those seeking tattoos to check the credentials of their artist beforehand — after a botched job almost cost her part of her leg.
Kirsty Griffiths paid £130 for a flower design on her right ankle while on holiday in Turkey last month.
But within 48 hours, the 34 year-old had developed life-threatening cellulitis which had spread to her stomach and gallbladder.
Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that affects the deep layers of the skin and can spread to other areas of the body.
It requires urgent antibiotics and if untreated can infect multiple bodily areas, eventually leading to deadly sepsis.
Doctors struggled to keep Ms Griffiths’ infection under control and reportedly told her if the situation continued, she may have to have her foot amputated.
‘Two different surgeons came to visit me and one said if this doesn’t clear up I might have to have my foot amputated,’ she said.
‘I was crying and screaming every night in pain. It was morphine drip after morphine drip and I could still feel the pain through the painkillers.’
Kirsty Griffiths, 34, from Liverpool, suffered the life-threatening infection cellulitis after a tattoo went wrong.
Thankfully, the infection did eventually clear up after about four days in hospital.
‘Luckily the antibiotics started working,’ she said. ‘Now, my tattoo looks all scabbed, crusted and black. It’s really itchy and still very painful.’
Ms Griffiths said she is still walking with a limp and having to take paracetamol every four hours to numb the pain.
‘I can’t sleep through the night [at the moment] as I’m in that much pain and I can’t put any weight on it.’
She believes the infection was caused by the tattooist putting the needle in too deep.
Recalling her decision to have the body art she said: ‘I already had a rose on my ankle but I didn’t like it so he did a better, bigger rose to cover it up.
‘[In the appointment, the tattoo artist] did the outline first. But when he was just about to finish that bit I started feeling dizzy and like I was going to pass out.
‘I told him I didn’t feel well and I got up.
Ms Griffiths said she trusted the tattoo parlour she chose because they were located within a hotel.
Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that penerates the deeper layers of the skin. Without rapid intervention, it can spread to the organs and lead to deadly sepsis.
‘I couldn’t see anything and I threw up. He [the tattoo artist] said it was because of my blood sugars and at this point I thought it might be.
‘I had never experienced this in my life before. To begin with the pain was okay but it started to get more painful.
‘It was the kind of pain that made you feel sick. I couldn’t bear it so I kept asking him to stop so I could breathe.
‘I didn’t realise he was going in too far with the needle and causing the pain.
‘It looked really nice when he first did it and I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it just must be painful because it was on my ankle.’
Ms Griffiths said she took her children to a Halloween party that evening and ‘thought nothing of it’, until the following morning when she woke to find her leg was ‘double the size of my other one’.
‘It was red raw and looked like there were blisters on my tattoo. There was fluid behind it which was the infection.’
She flew home from Turkey, suffering ‘excruciating pain’ on the flight home.
Ms Griffiths said she’s been left with itchy scabs that have formed over the ink.
‘I had to put my foot up elevated on the back of the chair as it was swelling. It was the worst four hours of my life.’
Shortly after landing back in the UK she was rushed straight to Whiston Hospital in Prescot, Merseyside, where tests confirmed cellulitis.
‘I feel stupid because usually when I go to Turkey I always go to the people I know to get tattoos and it was always fine,’ Ms Griffiths said.
‘I didn’t do my research or background checks on this person as I thought they were safe.’
She is now warning other holiday-goers about the dangers of getting a tattoo inked abroad.
‘I would say to others thinking of getting a tattoo done abroad, you need to do your research and look into the person you’ve chosen to do the job.
‘I wonder how many other people have been left like this. It’s put me off getting tattoos all together.’
When the tattoo studio were contacted by journalists, they claimed Ms Griffiths wore socks following the appointment, which caused the infection.
A representative said: ‘We have a camera in the shop and all tools are clean and sterilised. She wasn’t well when she first had the tattoo done and I asked her many times if she felt okay.’
