We had the pleasure to be approached by Eva. A mother from Norway who has traveled the world showing off her body suit masterfully done with over 300 hours of work in the chair. She then was approached by Guinness World Records and was recognized as the most tattooed woman in the world. We were lucky that she wanted to share her story with everyone, and now we bring it to you. Read on to find out more about her life!
Q: Hello Eva, Give us your basic information:
A: My name is Eva Svindland, I am 45 years old,born and raised in Norway,in a little town named Egersund on the west coast.
Q: At what age did you discover tattoos? Can you tell us a little about that
A: My father was an old sailor. So when I was just a litle girl,3-4 years old, I remember him coming home from the sea showing me his newest tattoo from each time I saw him until the next time he had to leave us again. He had the typical old school-tattoos. A heart with a knife through and a snake twisted around it. A banner with the name of my mother in it and stuff like that.They were really old school.Several of them he got done in Singapore.
Q: Which one was your first tattoo? Does it have a story behind it?
A: My first tattoo was a blue rose I did at Henky Penky Studio in Amsterdam. I actually looked for that rose for 7 years before I found it. It was from a movie with Peter Strauss in it
Q: In which point did you decide to cover your body in this amazing art? How did you arrive to this decision?
A: I have always been very fascinated about the black& grey bodysuits, in japanese style.I am not so happy about color. I searched the internet for some years to find an artist which I liked the work of and thought which one suited me best.
I found Noi Siamese 3 and wanted him to do a hanya on me. And when he met me and saw that I was an adult woman,not a teenager he asked me if i would be his model.We decided to go for half bodysuit.We started it in October 2008 and was finished so I could travel to Manchester in March 09, to show off his work for the first time. ( I remember winning the class over 42 other copetitions at that convention).
I traveled and competed on several conventions in 2009 with only half bodysuit.And then we took a break and started to build on the hole bodysuit in the end of September 2010,and started to compete again with full bodysuit in march 2012,in Rotterdam. Then I traveled around in Europe to show off his work on some conventions.And in June summer of 2012 I went to Iron ‘n Ink-festival, in Long Beach, to show his work. That was kind of an adventure for me.On Friday I won 1st place in Best Japanese.Saturday I didn’t go to the boat,Queen Mary, because there was no class for me to compete in.But when I arrived on Sunday, several people come asking for me and told me to hurry up.Because I should be on stage in 20 minutes to compete in a class called Best over All, female. I won that class too. And when the people told me that I should compete in a class called Best of Show I told them to stop messing with me,because that is the class I compete in with my cats when I take them to cat show,haha.
But there was a class called that,so I had to go up on stage again, and I won that class too, wow.I beat the model of Hiroyosho the 3. with one point.
When it all was over a delegation with strangers came over to me and started to talk to me about my tattoo. I didn’t know any of them so I told them that I am not an object.First of all I am a mother and a housewife,who happenes to have a big tattoo. One of the men looked at me and said:”I see you, and I can totally respect that”. But we are talking about a world record here.I asked what he meant and told him Isobel Varley is the woman with the world record. I even told him that she lives in england and she has a lot more ink than me. Then he said: “I’m talking about the real stuff,the black&grey”. That man turned out to be Jack Rudy
They had noticed me on Friday and brought in people who were veterans in the game.So when I was on stage on Sunday, I noticed it was not the ordinary young generation who dominated the audience.There were a lot of “grown up” men in the audience who were looking at me. And from then on I was allowed to say I am the most tattooed woman in the world ,in black & grey
Q: Has your ink impacted you in any way on your social life? Do you feel like your life has changed after your work?
A: Of course the tattoo has had a big impact on my life. I got more focused on my body,I started training and lost 17 kilos . I didn’t want to look like an old fat woman when I was naked on stage And I also got more and better self esteem from it.The first time I had to go on stage in just a little string was horrible. Now I can do it without hesitating at all. I know I have beautiful art on my body and I am very proud to show it off Also, I know the artists never judge my body or me.They are professional and only look at the artwork.
