PALAISEAU,
France (Reuters) - Sylvain Helaine, 35, is a schoolteacher whose body, face and tongue
are covered in tattoos after spending 460 hours under tattooists’ needles.
He says that,
after an initial shock when they see him for the first time, his pupils see
past his appearance.
Last year he
was teaching kindergarten at the Docteur Morer Elementary School in Palaiseau,
a suburb of Paris, when the parents of a three-year-old child complained to
educational authorities. They said their son, who was not taught by Helaine,
had nightmares after seeing him.
A couple of
months ago the school authorities informed him he could no longer teach
kindergarten children since pupils under six “could be frightened by his
appearance”. Anyway, he could teach older kids.
Despite the
setbacks, Helaine will stick with his chosen career. “I’m a primary school
teacher ... I love my job.”
He started getting
tattoos at the age of 27 when, while teaching at a private school in London, he
had an “existential crisis”. Since then, he said, “Getting tattoos is my
passion.”
He hopes to
show his pupils that they should accept people who are different from the norm.
“Maybe when they are adults they will be less racist and less homophobic and
more open-minded,” he said.
From Reuters (edited)
