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At some point we stop liking our own reflection in an ordinary mirror. And this brings about the striving for changes in life, which finds its expression in the desire to play around our appearance. 

But can the changes in appearance impact one’s fate?  

“It’s not my case,” Etienne Dumont, one of the most tattooed men on the planet, told Armenian News – NEWS.am

“I have exactly the same job and the same friends. I'm living in the same town,” he added. 

Dumont, who is an art critic, became famous in 2009 after Europ’art’09 exhibition held on occasion of Dumont’s 60th anniversary in Geneva. His portraits made by twelve photographers were displayed at the exhibition.

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Etienne Dumont was born on 27 June 1948. He had his first tattoo done in the 1980s in Lausanne, when he was about 30. 

“It was a small eagle. It's now somewhere under another tattoo, in the right arm. I don't remember my feelings then. Probably the surprise to have really done it,” Dumont said.

Over time, however, having tattoos done on his body turned into a real passion. First Etienne Dumont applied black and white tribals, which turned into colored ones after having seen a Polynesian mask at the Orsay Museum.

By 2005, his entire body was covered with tattoos. But he did not stop at that, and he added silicone implants in his hands, as well as implants in the form of horns under his forehead skin, earrings in his earlobes and organic glass piercings in his lips and nose.  The art critic and journalist, however, noted that he does not set a specific meaning to his tattoos. “It’s just decoration,” he added. 

For a long time, Etienne worked at La Tribune de Geneve daily newspaper, which is one of the most prestigious French-language publications in Switzerland. Today he cooperates with no less influential economic magazine “Bilan.”  Etienne Dumont said no conflicts occur between him and the society because of the way he looks. To put it another way, he doesn’t have to defend his “otherness.”  

 “How do people react on me? Kids are more natural than adults. Most teenagers are loud and stupid. But with everybody.” 

“I always dreamed to be tall, and I am short... ” Etienne confesses, responding to the question on whether he feels handsome. “Beauty is a matter of taste. The problem is that a lot of people consider the same things beautiful at the same time.” 

The art critic and a journalist has no family. He says he lives the moment, does not believe in destiny, and does not think about the next day. “I’m not a superstitious man. I do not care about signs. Things just happen,” Etienne Dumont added. 

According to Etienne, the main problems of the modern society are the climate change, overpopulation, unemployment and religious madness.  “Who feels really good in today's world?” he said.

 

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