Toumaniantz – himself covered from head to foot in tattoos and piercings – said he would help pay for half of the treatment to remove the tattoos.

‘I maintain that she absolutely agreed that I tattoo those 56 stars on the left side of her face,’ he told newspaper La Derniere Heure.

‘A witness, a woman who was present, has already been questioned by police, and she confirms it.

‘But be that as it may: Kimberley is unhappy and it is not my wish to have an unsatisfied client. There is a way to remove the tattoos with the help of a laser. I accept to pay for half the cost.’

‘She’s 18 years old, she’s an adult,’  he said. ‘I don’t regret it. To tell you the truth, this has given me some publicity.’

Kimberley is suing Toumaniantz for £10,000 after she paid £55 for ‘the graffiti that has ruined my life’.

‘It is terrible for me,’ said Kimberley yesterday. ‘I cannot go out on to the street, I am so embarrassed. I just look horrible.’

‘I think he didn’t understand what I wanted. He spoke only fractured English and French.

‘But I explicitly said in my native tongue, French, and also in a little bit of English when he looked confused, that I wanted three little stars only near my left eye.’

He said she knew ‘exactly what she wanted’.

‘The trouble all started when she went home and her father and boyfriend threw a fit.

‘They are saying things now like I doped her or hypnotised her. What rubbish!

‘She asked for 56 stars and that’s what she got.’

To remove these tattoos I mean surgery costing £8,500.
Jules Clocher said: ‘The trauma this girl must be feeling is indescribable.  She feels like a circus freak – and no wonder, because she looks like one.’

Toumanaintz said from now on he will get written consent from clients before he begins tattooing.