Kindergarten Teacher Complains He Can't Get Work After Tattooing His Eyeballs Black
French school teacher can no longer teach after parents say he gave kids nightmares
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A schoolteacher in France is complaining that he's no longer allowed to teach kindergarten anymore because children under six years of age "could be frightened by his appearance" after he tattooed his eyeballs black.
Aside from having had his eyes surgically blackened, 35-year-old Sylvain Helaine, reportedly known in the tattoo world as "Freaky Hoodie," has had his body, face, and tongue completely covered in tattoos.
Helaine says he began covering his entire body in tattoos after going through an “existential crisis” at 27 years old while working for a private school in London, according to Reuters.
He argues that most of his students see past his appearance and are “cool” with it, however.
“All of my students and their parents were always cool with me because basically, they knew me,” Helaine said.
“It’s only when people see me from far away that they can assume the worst.”
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Helaine was reportedly teaching kindergarten at the Docteur Morere Elementary School in the Paris suburb of Palaiseau when the parents of a three-year-old child complained to school authorities that their son had nightmares after seeing him.
The child was not a student of Helaine's.
According to the Reuters report, a couple of months later, the school informed Helaine that he would no longer be able to teach kindergartners due to his appearance.
A spokesman for the local education authority expressed that children under six years of age "could be frightened by his appearance."
"I think the decision they took was quite sad," he said.
Nevertheless, Helaine is determined to continue teaching, and an agreement made with the school allowed him to stay on as a teacher for children over six years old.
"I'm a primary school teacher ... I love my job," he told Reuters.
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He has no plans to stop tattooing himself, either.
Helaine said he started getting tattoos when he was 27 after he went through what he called an "existential crisis."
And since then, it has become his "passion."
He said he plans on getting more layers of tattoos so that one day he will be “fully covered in black ink,” according to The Sun.
Now he hopes that his students will be inspired because of him to be more accepting of those who are different.
"Maybe when they are adults they will be less racist and less homophobic and more open-minded," he said.
