Man says blackened eyes cost him a teaching job

Sylvain Helaine, a schoolteacher whose body, face and

tongue are covered in tattoos and who has had the whites of his eyes surgically turned black, said he was prevented from teaching at a French kindergarten after a parent complained he scared their child. But the teacher, 35, still teaches children from the age of six up, and said that, after a shock when they see him

for the first time, the kids see past his appearance.

CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP via Gett y Imag es French primary school teacher Sylvain Helaine displays his tattoos in Palaiseau, a suburb of Paris, last week.