Michelle ‘Mikki’ DiDonato has been dubbed a walking ‘comic book’ by her dad after covering her body in tattoos – including her eyes.
The tattoo shop owner and mum-of-three, from Delray Beach, Florida, started her ink journey 11 years ago.
However, it’s been a tough road for the 32-year-old, battling tumultuous relationships and drug addiction. Now, she’s stronger than ever and equipped with stunning body art (showcased on her Instagram account @mikkimodified).
Mikki claims to have only spent £385 ($500) dollars on her tattoos, and she also makes a killing at her studio, All City Tattoos in Boca Raton, South Florida.
Not everyone was supportive when Mikki got her first tattoo at the age of 21, which led to her sneaking off to get inked.
Mikki said:
I had just had my second child and I got my first tattoo for my 21st birthday. I started putting away more money to get more tattoos, but my ex was not a fan of it. He was really religious, and he was trying to be a pastor. I would fight to get that first tattoo and I had to prove to him that it wasn’t bad.
He actually had me pull out scriptures in the Bible to show him that it was okay, so I had to get, like, really I guess, a lot of backing from the Bible to get my tattoo. I started putting away more money to get more tattoos and go sneak off to get tattooed and just explain to him later.
Her relationship with her ex – and father of her three children – eventually crumbled in 2010. Soon, as her drug addiction spiralled, she began getting lower-quality tattoos. Despite her dad John’s disapproval, he bought her a tattoo kit in rehab as a sign of support. She’s now been sober for more than six years, helped by her new husband and tattoo fanatic Chris, 34.
Mikki explained:
When I met Chris, he literally covered every bad tattoo I got and redone all of the old tattoos I had because they faded, and [he] made them all match. Chris has touched my entire body with his machine. Chris was teaching me to tattoo at a shop called South Seas and the owner actually married us there.
But we couldn’t pay rent, so we left that tattoo studio to work for my Dad’s manufacturing company. He pulled my husband Chris aside when we worked for him and he said: ‘You’re turning my daughter into a comic book’, but I think he was more scared of me.
The newlyweds began to tattoo customers as a weekend job at their family home for extra cash but started to earn more money inking than through their day jobs. Eventually, Mikki’s dad supported her body art, even helping them to buy a tattoo studio – as of this month, it’s been open for five years.
In that time, Mikki has also had her ears stretched, face pierced and eyes tattooed. ‘I really just have no idea how many tattoos I have. Maybe one day I should sit there and try to count, but it is almost my whole body,’ she said.
‘I don’t necessarily like the look of too much with the whole face covered in tattoos. I still want to see me. But my favourite one is the eat sh*t tattoo on my ass – I love that one,’ she added.
Despite her overflowing body art, Mikki reckons her children – Mercy, 13, Massimo, 11, and Cillian, nine – don’t really notice the tattoos.
Mikki said:
Every so often I’ll say to them: ‘Did you know I have this?’ They just see it as a whole tattoo and they are so used to it. I’ve been trying to get them think I’m f*cking cool, but they just see me as their mother.
As for what’s next in the body modification queue, she’s considering getting her tongue split. ‘I saw a picture of myself where it looked like my tongue was split and everyone was like asking, so I -while started off not liking it I am growing comfortable to see something and have changed my mind,’ she said.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.