An Irish TikTok star and psoriasis sufferer who woke up one day as a teen with his body covered in red, flaky patches says his tattoos are a way for him to control how his skin looks.
Damien Broderick, a marketing and social media manager, with 115k followers on TikTok, now estimates that he has around 33 tattoos covering his body and is always thinking about what patch of skin he will cover next.
The 30-year-old Dubliner was diagnosed with the condition when it suddenly appeared on his skin at the age of 17 and he has lived with psoriasis ever since that causes big flare ups covering 95% of his body.
“I went to bed with no psoriasis and woke up with all the psoriasis," he said. "I went to bed and my skin was clear, never knew any different, and I woke up the next morning and basically from my neck down to my waist was just one big red, raw, flaky, scale."
“I had never even heard of psoriasis before. Like most teenage boys I just screamed for my mam. She came running in and thought it was something seriously wrong.
“We went down to the GP and he took one look at it and said, ‘I think it’s psoriasis’. He gave me a prescription for some steroid creams and I had two or three bouts of them.
“They worked but not really really worked - that’s been my overall experience with psoriasis."
Psoriasis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory skin disorder that affects at least 73,000 people in Ireland. It is an immune condition that causes symptoms of red, flaky, patches on the skin and can sometimes cause psoriatic arthritis on the joints.
At the time he was diagnosed, Damien already had one tattoo - a small one on his wrist - that he got at the age of 16.
Now, he estimates he has at least 33 tattoos covering his chest, neck, face, head, arms, hands and stomach and he is “not even close to being finished.”
Damien revealed he had a “lightbulb” moment recently when he realised he might be drawn to getting tattoos as it is a way of him reclaiming his skin.
He was talking to a psychologist while promoting a new video and podcast series, called PsO Let’s Talk Psoriasis, that is aimed at people living with psoriasis.
Damien said: “One of the doctors on the panel, off camera we were speaking and one of them was asking about my tattoos. He’s a psychologist so it was interesting getting his input on it.
“I always joke that I have body dysmorphia, in terms of getting tattoos, because I’m not really satisfied until I get the coverage that I want. I see gaps in the skin and I can see the tattoos that I want to go there.
“[The psychologist] turned around to me and said, ‘Do you think this is your way of reclaiming your skin? You’re the one now dictating how your skin looks, not psoriasis.’
“And that was like a lightbulb [moment]. I’d never thought of that before. It makes perfect sense.”
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Damien said his flare up's can be very extensive, with psoriasis covering 95% of his body.
“My skin will either be 99.9% clear or it will be 95% psoriasis," he said. "There’s no in-between with my skin. It’s either a feast or a famine.
“It’s either the best it can be or the worst it can be. It is very extensive. There’s a lot of coverage on the body where psoriasis has taken hold in big large scaly patches.
“There are no little flare-ups for me. I’ve had two or three of those real bad flare ups and it takes months to reel the skin back into a good condition.”
When he was first diagnosed, he was given steroid creams to treat his skin but after years of living with psoriasis, Damien has been able to discover what triggers his flare ups to make the condition more manageable.
“It wasn’t until years and years later I found my own triggers, what tends to set [my psoriasis] off and how to look after my skin," he said.
“I always find that when I’m out drinking - I don’t drink that much - but when I am out drinking alcohol I will wake up the next morning with a little spot of psoriasis under my right eye.
“And I know after having a few drinks that it will be much more raw red and much more itchy.
“If I consume a lot of sugar, if I’m drinking lots of fizzy drinks, or if I’m eating lots of really bad food that affects it badly as well.
“Obviously when you’re really stressed and you’re really anxious then that obviously plays a big factor - which isn’t great because you’re [already] anxious and stressed and then your skin starts to flare up and then you’re going to be anxious and stressed about your skin and it becomes a bad cycle.”
He is also careful about what washing detergents and shower gels he uses on his skin as he sometimes notices a flare up if that is changed.
“I don’t take any medication, lucky enough," he said. “I’m just very, very careful and very particular about what I put on my skin.
“I find a shower gel that works [for my skin] and I never change it.
“When it’s Christmas and you get the inevitable Lynx set from an auntie I just give it to one of the lads. I just don’t risk it.
And he has also learned a special trick for washing his hair so as not to let the shampoo affect his skin.
“When I’m washing my hair, I get out of the shower and I bend over the basin and I wash my hair separately so then the shampoo is not running down my skin."
- PsO Let’s Talk Psoriasis by Janssen Sciences Ireland UC is available free of charge online with four episodes released on a weekly basis throughout May 2022, at https://www.janssenwithme.ie/pso/resources/pso-lets-talk-psoriasis. The podcast audio versions are also available on all popular podcast platforms.
