‘I was bullied at school for being ginger but now I’m known as tattooed bombshell’

A social media star who has thousands of admirers online revealed she was brutally bullied in school for being ginger.

Bolton babe Nicole Howard was terrorised daily just for her appearance.

But the 33-year-old now has a quarter of a million followers across TikTok and Instagram.

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And she said getting tattooed rebuilt the confidence which was destroyed as a teenager.

Speaking to Daily Star about her body art obsession, she said: “I got bullied throughout school over the way I looked and having tattoos has brought my confidence sky high.

“I am a natural ginger so I was bullied throughout school.

“It was constant name calling, people taking my dinner money, people pulling my hair, it was non-stop.

“It was every single day and it got to the point where I was not going in.”

Nicole, now a full-time carer for her daughter who has special needs, added: “The lads who bullied me now try it on with me and the girls who bullied me back then are now basically up my ar*e. It’s mad.

“I have had people come up to me and say ‘I’m really sorry about how we treated you, you didn’t deserve any of it and we should have stood up for you more’.

“People are now interested in my look and people tend to follow me more for my tattoos and hair now and if I didn’t have all this I don’t feel like that many people would be interested.

“I wouldn’t have expected me to go the way I have.

“It still shocks me every day because I have quite a large following on TikTok and Instagram and thinking back to that girl who was bullied throughout high school I am still shocked at how I am where I am now.”

Nicole got her first tattoo aged 18 – not long after leaving the school gates for the final time.

It was her own name at the bottom of her back and she laughed: “Don’t ask me why, I think it was in at the time.”

She then gradually had most areas of her body inked and she predominantly went for what looked good as opposed to what was meaningful to her.

But the mum, whose social media handles include the phrase ‘inked bombshell’, does have the names and dates of birth of her kids etched into her skin.

And she said the process of getting tattooed is her escape and way of coping with her traumas.

She explained: “I started to struggle with my mental health because I had suffered domestic violence so as daft as it sounds, getting tattooed was my release.

“A lot of people self-harm and they feel relief but for me having children it’s not something I am going to do so my way of releasing how I’m feeling is getting tattoos because of the pain.

“If I am going through a tough time, I will get a tattoo and it will take me out of the phase I am in straight away, it’s mental.”

Despite the pain being therapeutic, one area of her body was unbearable to have inked.

“The ribs, oh my god, never again,” she laughed.

“I want to be covered in tattoos but then the thought of me having my stomach done or my ribs makes me think definitely not.

“It was awful, absolutely awful.”

And as for how her family perceive her ink, she concluded: “They just think I am mental.

“But they also know that the tattoos brought me out of my shell and now my younger brother has started following in my footsteps.

“Some people like it, some don’t, that’s their opinion.”

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