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But the teacher, Sylvain Helaine, 35, still
teaches children from the age of six up, and said that, after an
initial shock when they see him for the first time, his pupils
see past his appearance.
"All of my students and their parents were always cool with me
because basically they knew me," said Helaine, who estimated he
has spent around 460 hours under the tattooists' needle.
"It's only when people see me from far away that they can assume
the worst."
He said last year he was teaching kindergarten at the Docteur
Morere Elementary School in Palaiseau, a suburb of Paris, when
the parents of a three-year-old child complained to educational
authorities. They said their son, who was not taught by Helaine,
had nightmares after seeing him.
A couple of months later the school authorities informed him he
would no longer teach kindergarten children, he said. "I think
the decision they took was quite sad," said Helaine.
A spokesman for the local education authority said an agreement
was reached with Helaine to move him away from teaching
kindergarten. Pupils under six "could be frightened by his
appearance", the spokesman said.
Despite the setbacks, Helaine said he would stick with his
chosen career. "I'm a primary school teacher ... I love my job."
He said he started getting tattoos at the age of 27 when, while
teaching at a private school in London, he had an "existential
crisis". Since then, he said, "Getting tattoos is my passion."
He said he hoped to show his pupils that they should accept
people who are different from the norm. "Maybe when they are
adults they will be less racist and less homophobic and more
open-minded," he said.
(Writing by Christian Lowe and Lucien Libert; editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
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