2 . Mark Bertram, 46, lost the tips of two fingers at work in 2018 when his hand became trapped in a fan belt. “It's life-changing but it's not life-ending,” he says. “Doing work is harder now. Everything is just a little different.”

After two surgeries and occupational therapy, Bertram decided to make light of his condition by asking Eric Catalano, a tattoo (纹身) artist, to create fingernail tattoos. The idea made everyone in the studio laugh—until they saw the final result. “The mood changed,” Catalano recalls from his Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio. “Everything turned from funny to wow.”

When Catalano posted a photo of the tattoos, a pair of fingernails that looked so real that no one could believe their eyes, he had no idea the image would eventually be viewed by millions of people around the world.

The viral photo pushed Catalano, 40, further into the world of paramedical (辅助医疗的) tattooing. Now people with life-altering scars come from as far away as Ireland to visit his shop. They enter Eternal Ink looking for the artistic healing they saw online. Using flesh-toned (肉色的) inks and a needle, Catalano transforms his clients' view of themselves.

Leslie Pollan, 32, a dog breeder in Oxford, was bitten on the face by a puppy in 2014. She underwent countless surgeries to correct a scar on her lip.

“Plastic surgery gave me no hope,” she says. “So I looked for other options.” She ultimately traveled six hours to meet with Catalano. He hid Pollan's lip scar, giving her back a piece of her confidence.“ You don't understand until you've been through it,” Pollan says. “It made me have a different look on life.”

Catalano performs up to eight reconstructive tattoos. While he charges $100 per regular tattoo, he doesn't charge for paramedical tattoos. “Financially, it doesn't make sense,” Catalano says. “But every time I see that emotion from my customers, I'm 100 percent sure this is something that I can't stop doing.”