Scottish woman 'nearly loses foot' after £25 Turkey holiday tattoo

SWNS

A Scottish tourist has told how she came scarily close to losing her foot after a £25 tattoo she had done on holiday in Turkey became infected.

Susan Fraser, 54, had a vine leaf design with hearts and stars etched onto her right foot in a tattoo studio in the Green Nature Resort & Spa hotel in Marmaris, Turkey.

But just hours later her foot became infected and ballooned, leaving her struggling to walk and in agonising pain.

SWNS

After being escorted by a nurse on the flight home, Susan was rushed to hospital by ambulance from Glasgow Airport and doctors spent the next month trying to salvage her foot.

When three different intravenous antibiotics failed to combat the deep-set infection, medics at Kilmarnock's Crosshouse Hospital, Ayrshire, were debating whether to amputate her foot or attempt a skin graft when a fourth antibiotic finally worked.

SWNS

The supermarket worker, from Irvine, North Ayrshire, told SWNS: "By the end of the holiday, it was the size of a balloon and oozing blood. It was horrendous.

"When I was told I was going to lose my foot, I was terrified and in tears. In a last ditch attempt to clear the infection, they tried a new antibiotic - and it worked. I'll never get a tattoo abroad again, that's for sure."

Customer care manager Wendy Tuncel said the tattoo studio's hygiene standards were "very high", telling the Scottish Sun: "The lady did not make a complaint to me or hotel management about this."

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