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I burned off half my tattoo after spilling boiling water on myself while cooking roast – it hurt more than childbirth

2022-03-25 00:00:00.0 太阳报-英国新闻原网页

A SALON owner has told how suffered such severe burns while rustling up a Sunday roast that it 'BURNED OFF' her half-sleeve tattoo.

Amber Bowles was preparing a roast gammon dinner along with all the trimmings when the horrifying accident happened.

Salon owner Amber Bowles Credit: Kennedy News 4

She accidentally burned off her tattoo with boiling water while cooking a Sunday roast Credit: Kennedy News 4

She suffered third-degree burns Credit: Kennedy News

As the 27-year-old was draining a pan of par-boiled spuds to make roast potatoes, the tea towel she used to cover the hot pan handle caught on the hob grate.

This caused the mum-of-one to accidentally pour boiling water down her right arm and all over her half tattoo sleeve of a woman and a floral design.

The third degree burn was so severe huge blisters bubbled up on a 4x3-inch patch on her arm, caused nerve damage and 'burned off' part of her tattoo.

Amber's horrified partner, 28-year-old salesman Zack Brown rushed her to A&E where doctors popped and scraped the blisters before applying antibacterial cream and burns dressings.

Given the severity of the injury, Amber visited a specialist burns hospital where was told she may need a skin graft, but luckily she healed well enough that she didn't need one.

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The injury was so painful Amber was unable to work in her salon over Christmas - one of the busiest periods of the year for beauty treatments.

Now, four months on from her ordeal in November, Amber is urging people to be 'more wary' in the kitchen so they don't have the same agonising experience she did.

Amber, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, said: "The accident has burned the tattoo off. I've got a woman's face and a big flower.

"Half her head is missing and then half of the flower and all the leaves has gone as well.

"The doctors didn't think it would go that deep to take the tattoo off, they thought the tattoo would come back, but the burn went quite deep so it took all of the ink out of the skin.

"It went that deep it damaged all my nerve endings too. I was really traumatised by it.

"I'd bought a salon in August and renovated the lot. The busiest time of the year is Christmas but I couldn't work because of what happened."

Amber, who is mum to two-and-a-half-year-old Vienna Brown, was making a roast gammon dinner on November 21st when disaster struck.

Having popped the joint in the oven and prepped the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower ahead of putting them in the steamer, Amber was par-boiling potatoes for roasting.

'EXCRUCIATING PAIN'

It was as she tried to drain the spuds that her tea towel caught causing her to accidentally spill scorching water down her arm.

Amber said: "I usually do a roast every Sunday, it's a meal I'm really good at making and something I enjoy doing.

"In the last year I've been really trying to nail the roast dinners.

"I was doing roast potatoes. I peeled all the potatoes, put them in a big silver pot to boil with salt and a bit of oil before I put them in the oven.

"I went to pick the big pot up but the handles were too hot so I grabbed a tea towel and picked the pot up. It contained water that had been boiling for about 20 minutes.

"The tea towel then got caught and the whole of the pot went all over my right arm, hand, thumb and wrist.

"I just remember this excruciating pain. I don't know how I even managed it but I managed to put the pot back down and then screamed for my partner and my mum.

"I got to the tap as quickly as I could and I put it under the cold water tap.

"I've given birth [was in labour] for 40 hours and that wasn't even on par with that.

'ARM ON FIRE'

"It felt like my arm was on fire. As soon as I saw my arm under the cold water tap my skin was just peeling off and that's when I knew it was bad.

"My whole body went into shock and I was just screaming. Zack came down, he was just as shocked as I was.

"I had it under the water for 20 minutes and then he rushed me to hospital."

Zack drove Amber to James Paget Hospital's A&E department in Great Yarmouth where doctors soaked her arm in cool water before scraping off the blisters, applying antibacterial cream and dressings.

Amber said: "Once I got to hospital that's when I started to get blisters, there were about eight or nine and they were big - some were the size of a ￡2 coin.

"I thought it was best to leave them but they popped them and then peeled all the skin back, which was awful. It was absolutely agonising.

"I was there for about an hour, they were pretty quick and were really good.

"I went back the next day and then I then had to go to burns specialists at Broomfield Hospital in Essex.

"They were going to have to do a skin graft and take it off my leg but my body then started healing on the last visit and they were quite happy with it."

Amber said that after the accident she initially didn't cook for a while but now back in the kitchen, she takes her time and is urging others to be 'more wary'.

Amber said: "It wasn't very nice losing my tattoo but because they thought I was going to have to have a skin graft I was trying to look at things positively.

"I'm glad it's taken half of my tattoo off rather than burn my face or my daughter.

"I couldn't believe I'd done it, I still can't. After I did it I didn't cook for a while, I didn't go near a hob.

"Now I'm ok but I'm very wary.