36-year-old photographer Leandro de Souza, known as the most tattooed man in Brazil, has decided to radically transform his appearance. He has begun the painful process of removing his many tattoos, particularly those on his face.
According to de Souza, he covered his body with more than 170 tattoos, starting with his first at age 13. His “tattoo boom” began in 2015 after a difficult divorce, when he tried to numb his emotional pain. But he later admitted that the tattoos made his life “unbearable,” leaving him feeling like a “circus attraction.”
About two years ago, his life took a turn when he embraced evangelical Christianity. De Souza said that after finding faith, his love for tattoos completely disappeared. In the past, he had also endured prison, drug addiction, and homelessness.
The tattoo removal process, which Leandro documents on Instagram, is excruciatingly painful.
“It hurts a lot — no matter how much anesthesia they use, the pain is unbearable,” he shared.
At the tattoo studio helping him erase the ink, staff emphasized that tattoos do not define a person’s character. What truly matters, they said, are one’s choices, efforts, and determination to move forward. For Leandro, erasing his tattoos has become an outward reflection of a much deeper inner transformation in his life.
