Girl has 56 stars tattooed on face after 'falling asleep'

Kimberley Vlaminck, 18, claimed that she asked for only three stars to be tattooed near her left eye as a present from her father, Diego, who was upholding a family tradition of tattoos.

"My father wanted to pay because in our family everyone has a tattoo," she said.

As her father ate an ice cream outside, Miss Vlaeminck claims she fell asleep before waking up to find her face covered in the "nightmare" tattoos.

"When he started to tattoo me, I did not feel pain and I fell asleep. I awoke as he tattooed me on the nose and I saw what he had done. I counted 56 stars," she said.

"I cannot go out on to the street, I am so embarrassed. I just look ugly, a freak, mutilated."

Miss Vlaeminck and her family are seeking damages worth £9,000 to pay for laser surgery to remove the tattoos.

But Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the Courtrai tattoo parlour called The Tattoo Box, has denied the allegations and demanded payment of 50 euros for the stars.

"She was awake all the time. I did not hypnotise or dope her, as they say, it was with agreement. No way could I have tattooed so many stars on her face against her will," he said.

Mr Toumaniantz has counterclaimed that the problems only began when the father saw his teenage daughter's tattoos.