Mareike went and lived in Wisconsin, USA for ten months as part of a school exchange program when she was just 16 and it was here she met many different people with various styles of tattoos.


Since then, she has amassed over 66 tattoos, two nose piercings, a piercing on her bottom lip and she has had her ears stretched.



Mareike’s unique look most certainly can come across as intimidating to both men and women but her husband - Philipp - has always loved tattoos.



Their shared interest in tattoos is something they bond over with Mareike recently taking up tattooing Philipp with an array of different tattoos to expand his collection.



Mareike’s own journey with body modification began by having her under tongue pierced at the age of 16 by her friend in a basement. She needed something that could be easily hidden from her mother.



“I have always really liked expressing myself in a different way and liked being able to stand out,” she said.



“By the time I was 23, I had covered almost my whole body.



“I have been getting tattooed for a long time, the shortest tattoo took about an hour and the longest took ten hours. So probably if you had to put all the time together it would tally up to a few weeks.



“I did my first tattoo myself when I was 17 and it was an anchor on my right foot.



“But my first proper tattoo by an artist I got when I was 18 and it was a feather on my right rib.



“It is now covered with a big bird and it’s part of the wing. I had a slightly different idea of what I thought was cool back then. I blame Tumblr - just joking.



“The last tattoo I did was on my palms and it's a peony which is my favorite flower.



“I’d say the most painful tattoo was blackening out the belly button. That was crazy painful.”



Mareike currently has almost 500,000 followers on Instagram and, after appearing on Germany's Next Top Model, her reach skyrocketed.



She also thinks the fact that she was the first heavily tattooed model on the show helped to make her stand out.



“A lot happened for me both on and after I appeared on the show,” she said.



“Lots of people used to message me to say they found it really cool and refreshing to see someone covered in tattoos could be relatable.



“Again a huge stigma, especially in Germany, is usually attached to this kind of look.



“Some people also said that after the show it has helped other people be more open and accepting of people with lots of tattoos and for helping to at least soften the stigma around it.



“Most people in Germany have a very conservative view around it. Which is nothing against it, but you do get judged a bit off the bat.”



Initially Mareike’s tattoos were not well received by everyone.



“In Germany at the time people associated lots of tattoos with people not really being successful and just having a bad connotation to it,” said Mareike.



“I got a lot of ‘but what will happen when you are old’ from people.



“My parents were more concerned for my health because of the level of ‘trauma' to my skin as I did so many in quite a short time.



“Today people are more clued up on what and how tattoos work.



“My family love my tattoos, even my mum has two now.



“My friends have always been supportive and know that my tattoos are part of who I am. Many have never even known me without them.”



She wants to encourage others if they want to get into body modification to consider their futures for sure.



“If you want to get into body modification, think about the future, and what the long term after effects could be.



“For instance, my labret piercing in my bottom lip just above my chin, I had it stretched back then, and its closed now but if I want to 100% get rid of the hole, I would need surgery to fix it.”



Mareike owns her own sustainable fashion label called the Black Circle, produced in Bali and shipping all over the world from their warehouse in Germany.



The brand will be appearing in British Vogue this September under their designer showcase.



“I am so grateful for my big platform, it is thanks to that I have been able to start my own business and use my reach to develop it over time to where it is now.



“I do believe if I didn’t have a specific look I most likely wouldn’t have gotten some of the opportunities I did which then in turn would mean I would have had to take a bit of a different route.



“Currently there are no plans in the near future to add to my collection of tattoos.



“My focus for right now is on growing the brand and enjoying life in beautiful Bali.”





ENDS