A mother-of-seven with a crucifix tattoo on her face was allegedly kicked out of a church.
Melissa Sloan has more than 800 tattoos, including brightly colored squares and hearts all over her face, mostly done by her partner Luke.
Her extensive face tattoos include the image of a crucifix, as the 46-year-old from Wales turned to God after Luke suffered a health scare.
But, while praying and singing, the mother-of-seven claims she was “chucked” out of her local church on more than one occasion.
“Everyone turned their back laughing at me. The priest said ‘you’ve got to leave’ but most of them where laughing at me, nothing new. The priest must be evil to do that,” Melissa told the Daily Star.
She was told it was because she was “singing too loud” but she felt this was unfair as lots of other people were singing. She added that church is supposed to be a safe space for everyone.
“They judged me because of my tattoos, they’re supposed to open the doors and not judge,” she said.
Now, following the rejection, Melissa feels as though she has lost faith in the church.
It wasn’t the first place she has allegedly been asked to leave.
She says she was also asked to leave tattoo parlours, her own mother’s funeral and her children’s nativity play.
While she is “used to it” there was an extra level of shock at allegedly being asked to leave the church, saying key messaging from the Bible such as “love thy neighbour” had clearly been lost.
“I’m used to it now, I’ve been banned from everywhere and discriminated against everywhere. But I just don’t give a toss any more,” she said of her experience of being kicked out of multiple venues.