One of the things that I really love about tattoo is that for good or ill it always finds itself wrapped up in a never ending assortment of situations. I’m not trying to suggest that there’s some sort of sensationalist, superficial element that overshadows tattoo itself, no. I’m just trying to point out that there really aren’t too many other crafts or art forms that consistently manage to place themselves into so many situations that are quite frankly, bizarre. From tattoos that are inked with the ashes of a dead loved one, to free food in exchange for getting a particular tattoo, to other more shall we say, unsettling incidents such as the case of 26-year-old Torz Reynolds.
I don’t want to cast too much judgement on Reynolds, but this is the sort of thing that makes it really hard not to. After learning that her boyfriend Stuart “Chopper” May had been unfaithful to her and lied quite expertly about the entire infidelity – including a mock trip to the airport in order to catch his non-existent flight to his non-existent “dream job” in Alaska – Reynolds took to personally removing the tattoo on her forearm that stated she was “Chopper’s Bitch”. Using little more than a scalpel, Vasocaine numbing spray and a pair of dissection tweezers, Reynolds spent an hour and a half cutting away the flesh on her forearm surrounding the tattoo before peeling the entire chunk of flesh off. After she’d completed this, she placed the flesh in a jar, gift wrapped it and sent it to her ex.
“It was the after-pain that hurt the most. It felt like a nasty stinging sensation and putting on clothes was a difficult task,” said Torz.
“I’d always planned to send the skin to Chopper. After I had posted it to him, I didn’t receive a response from him.
“Removing the tattoo like that was definitely closure. I like to get over things quickly and I always delete someone completely out of my life.”
Torz, a body piercer at the Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour, says that Chopper had seemed like ‘the perfect boyfriend’.
She got the words ‘Chopper’s Bitch’ tattooed a year into their doomed relationship.
This is probably one of the most bizarre things in a while that I’ve read involving tattoo. I don’t even really know where to start. One thing is for certain, however: this woman has some issues. Like I said earlier, I don’t want to cast too much judgement on her. She was truly screwed over by her boyfriend. Finding out that he had pretended to leave the country just so that he could get away from her and start a new life with another woman is a hard thing to take. Then again, maybe he pretended to leave the country because that was the easiest way to break up with someone who is obviously capable of behaviour that is not altogether rational. I’m all for expressing yourself through tattoo, piercing, body modification, whatever blows your hair back. But cutting off a chunk of your flesh, placing it in a jar filled with plastic vampire fangs and mailing it to your ex-lover is a step too far the wrong way. In fact, it’s tip-toeing into the realm of full blown nutcasery.
That being said, all of this is quite uniquely entertaining and it just goes to show us all how many interesting characters exist out there in the tattoo universe. Torz Reynolds does things her own way and I guess that deep down, that’s what tattoo itself is all about. I would run from this woman if I saw her coming my way, but hey, that’s just me.
Best of luck with your most recent relationship, Torz.