A CORPORATE worker has quit her job and spent $50,000 to transform her body into a tattooed model.
Cigno is a tattoo apprentice and model living in San Francisco.
However, her life used to be radically different.
The change began when she lost 50 pounds in weight.
She quit her job in Germany and moved to America to pursue her dreams. From there, she started getting tattoos and extreme modifications to her body to feel like her “true self”.
Cigno explained: “I used to be a corporate drone.
Now I'm taking my life in my own hands to be the cyborg who's making art on people.” 60% of her body is currently tattooed, however, she wants to be covered head-to-toe.
She described her look like an “androgynous alien”, with her other changes including a boob job and silicone implants in her forehead to resemble horns.
In her old life, she would dress “proper, showing conformity” which left her feeling insecure.
“I needed to change in order to feel better about myself," she said.
Coming from a conservative town, her transformation came as a shock to her loved ones at home.
“My parents were not big fans of their daughter getting tattoos.
They would say, 'It’s like having a new daughter every time you come to visit us'.” For Cigno, the most important thing is that she now feels like a “better version” of her previous self, but hasn’t changed on the inside.
“There are always gonna be haters, no matter what you do.
There are people that would say I disfigured myself, it doesn't touch me at all.”