Helaine says she loves being an elementary school teacher.
(CNN) -
A school teacher whose body, face and tongue are tattooed and whose eyes were surgically darkened, said he was prevented from teaching in a French kindergarten after a father complained that he scared his son.
But the teacher, Sylvain Helaine, 35, still teaches children ages six and up, saying that, after an initial shock when they first see him, his students look beyond his appearance, Reuters reported.
"All my students and their parents were always good to me because they basically knew me," said Helaine, who estimated that she has spent around 460 hours under the tattoo needle.
"It's only when people see me from afar that they can assume the worst."
He said he was a kindergarten teacher at Docteur Morere primary school in Palaiseau, a Paris suburb, last year when the parents of a three-year-old boy complained to education authorities.
They said their son, who was not Helaine's student, had nightmares after seeing the tattooed teacher.
A couple of months later, school authorities informed him that he would no longer teach kindergarten children, he said.
"I think the decision they made was quite sad," Helaine said, according to Reuters.
A spokesman for the local education authority said an agreement was reached with Helaine to remove him from teaching kindergarten.
Pupils under the age of six "could be scared by their appearance," the spokesman said.
Despite the setbacks, Helaine said she would stick with her chosen career.
"I am a primary school teacher ... I love my job."
Tattooed teacher for «existential crisis»
He said he started getting tattoos at age 27 when, while teaching at a private school in London, he had an "existential crisis."
Since then, "getting tattoos is my passion," he added.
Helaine said she hoped to show her students that they should accept people who are different from the norm.
"Perhaps when they are adults they will be less racist and less homophobic and more open-minded," he said.
Tattoo
