When you see how hard people work to lose weight, it's always inspiring. But even after they lose a huge amount of weight, there's still work to do, and even trauma. If someone loses a lot of weight really fast, they can be left with a lot of loose skin. After working out in the gym and exercising, it can feel devastating when you're faced with more body issue problems.
A lot of people get surgery to lose the excess skin, and then they have to deal with the scars.
But one man decided that after two surgeries that he would do something about his body image. He decided to embrace body art.
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"I didn't feel confident because of all those scars," he told The Metro. "I just wanted to take my shirt off without having to tell people about my story of losing weight.
"To start a new life, I felt I need to cover my scars and hide my past. To be free in my skin, without thinking about what other people could see or think about me, that is related to my past." Kevin told The Metro: "Since my earliest childhood I had always been overweight."
By the age of 10 he already had stretch marks - not something you want to deal with before puberty.
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"At age of 18 I weighted over 150kg," he said. "I got bullied a lot and I hadn't any social life beside of computer games like World of Warcraft. I had already tried several diets, without any success."
Not that there's anything wrong with World of Warcraft. But then he found a friend to work out with and that seemed to work. He got really into it.
"I lost about 80 kilos in one year and suddenly I found myself in a new body, to take a second chance of life," said Kevin.
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80 kilos is a whole person - that's more than I weigh.
"A new form of willpower was born, to work really hard for everything I want to achieve in life, because I started to believe that everything is possible," he continued.
But the scars on his body were holding him back. So he turned to body art - the more tattoos he got the more he felt comfortable in his body and more like himself.
And now he's pretty heavily tattooed, and it looks amazing.
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"I was able to play a role of somebody I always wanted to be," explains Kevin. "And more and more I feel to be that person I always try to look like.
"My tattoos were the last puzzle piece to build strength, confidence and freedom in my skin."
Now The Creekman, as he's known, is a model as well as a social worker.
Words by Laura Hamilton
Featured Image Credit: Instagram