Kirsty Griffiths, a mum-of-five, said her leg “doubled” in size after she got a new tattoo on her leg during a visit to a salon at a hotel in Marmaris, Turkey, earlier this year
A devastated mum-of-five says she faces having her foot amputated after a tattoo she received while on holiday in Turkey became extremely infected.
Kirsty Griffiths, 34, arrived in Marmaris, Turkey, for a week-long sun-soaked stay with her family at the plush four-star Mirage World Hotel on October 25. The excited mum had decided to use the opportunity to get some new ink, and booked an appointment to get a new arm sleeve tattoo with her regular salon before jetting off.
After the initial piece was completed, Kirsty made a spur-of-the-moment decision to get an existing design on her right ankle covered with a new tattoo at a salon operating out of a rented outlet in the hotel. Despite vomiting and nearly passing out during the two-hour appointment on October 31, she was happy with the piece, but she was left horrified the following morning.
While she put down her difficulties during the appointment to low blood sugar, Kirsty woke to find her leg had “doubled” in size after the £130 appointment. Horrifying photos show the stay-at-home mum’s blue “hand-sized” rose covered in blisters and scabs 24 hours after getting the new ink.
Kirsty said she spent her four-hour flight home in agony and was rushed straight to Whiston Hospital in Prescot, Merseyside, after landing at Manchester Airport on November 1. Blood tests reportedly revealed Kirsty had cellulitis in her ankle that had caused inflammation in her gallbladder and stomach, and the mum claims a surgeon feared her foot would have to be amputated.
She believes the infection was caused by the tattooist putting the needle in too deep. But the studio argues it was because she covered the tattoo with a sock and used chemical numbing cream. Kirsty is now raising awareness of her experience and says it has put her off getting another tattoo for life.
Kirsty, from Liverpool, said: “[In the appointment, the tattoo artist] started it and he did the outline first and when he was just about to finish the outline I started going dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out. I told him I didn’t feel well and I got up and I couldn’t see anything and I threw up. He 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 the more he was doing. It was the kind of pain that made you feel sick. I couldn’t bear the pain and had to keep 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. We went off that night to a Halloween party with the kids and my foot was pulsating with pain and I could feel my ankle swelling. I went to bed that night and it was a little red and sore but I thought this was normal.
“When I woke up in the morning my leg was double the size of my other leg and it was red raw and looked like there were blisters on my tattoo. My leg had swollen and there was fluid behind it which was the infection. On the plane I was in excruciating pain and crying for the four hour journey.
“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.” After spending four days on a ward hooked up to antibiotics and painkillers, Kirsty was discharged from the hospital to continue to recover at home. Weeks on from the incident, she claims she is still walking with a limp and is having to take paracetamol every four hours to numb the pain.”
Kirsty said: “They did blood tests twice a day and they came back saying I had cellulitis in my ankle and because this had spread it had caused inflammation in my gallbladder and stomach and I had organ failure too. I was just in that much pain and 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.
“While in hospital I had two different surgeons come and visit me and one said that if this doesn’t clear up I might have to have my foot amputated. Luckily the antibiotics got into my system and started working. My tattoo looks all scabbed, crusted and black and it’s really itchy and still very painful.”
“I can’t sleep through the night [at the moment] as I’m in that much pain and I can’t put anything on it as it hurts.” Before flying home from Turkey, Kirsty says she visited the tattoo salon and also reported her infection to reception staff at Mirage World Hotel but claims neither will take responsibility.
The studio claimed Kirsty wore socks following the appointment, which caused the infection. The tattoo studio said: “It [the tattoo] wasn’t bleeding at all during tattooing and I want to ask you if it’s not bleeding during tattooing it means we have not put it in too deep.
“If it was too deep it would bleed during the tattooing. I told her to come back so we could clean it after one hour and put a sterile sticker on but she came wearing socks. She told me she used chemical numbing spray during tattooing. I have been tattooing for 25 years and I have experience but she did not tell me about the number spray during the tattooing.
“She wore socks one hour after tattooing. The next day when she came to see me, the sock was stuck to the skin so now do you want to believe her or my eyes. 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.”
Mirage World Hotel said they are not responsible for the ‘quality’ of the stores that they rent space to in their hotel. A spokesperson from the hotel’s guest relation team said: “First of all, we would like to express our apologies for this bad experience. Get well soon. We are not responsible for the quality of the stores we rent, we are not responsible for their quality.
“We will discuss the issue with the store owner, but unfortunately I can not help [the customer] with the fee and so on.”
