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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Helen Le Caplain & Courtney Pochin

Woman left 'traumatised' after Sunday roast accident 'burns her tattoo off'

When it comes to cooking, there are a number of potential dangers we have to be aware of.

And one mum is reminding everyone to take care - especially around boiling water.

Salon owner Amber Bowles says she was left 'traumatised' after having an accident in the kitchen while rustling up roast gammon for Sunday lunch.

The 27-year-old from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk accidentally spilt boiling water down herself while draining a pan of par-boiled potatoes and ended up 'burning off' a tattoo.

Amber says the horrific accident was caused when she caught the handle of the pan on the hob grate.

The mum was trying to cook a roast dinner (Kennedy News and Media)

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The mum-of-one ended up pouring boiling water down her right arm as a result - accidentally getting it all over her half tattoo sleeve of a woman and a floral design.

She ended up with a severe third-degree burn, with huge blisters bubbling up on a 4x3-inch patch on her arm, causing nerve damage and 'burning off' part of her tattoo.

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

Given the severity of the injury, Amber then had to visit 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.

She ended up with a third-degree burn (Kennedy News and Media)
The water 'burned off' her tattoo (Kennedy News and Media)

The injury was so painful Amber found herself 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 back in November, Amber is urging people to be 'more wary' in the kitchen so they don't go through the agonising experience she did.

She 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."

She wasn't able to work in her salon over Christmas (Kennedy News and Media)

Amber continued: "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.

"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."

"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."

Amber admits that after the accident she initially didn't cook again for a while but she's now back in the kitchen and wants to urge others to be 'more wary' and take their time.

She added: "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.

"Before I burned myself I'd be doing multiple things at once and rushing. Now I do not rush, I take my time and make sure my little girl's not there just in case."

"My advice to people is to be more wary when in the kitchen."

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