One in five 16 and 17-year-old women have self-harmed at some point.

It's a full-on statistic.

But what happens once you've recovered? Once you've stopped cutting and the scars heal?

Then you have to deal with the stares and the judgement from complete strangers.

Twenty-two year old Whitney Develle was at a party in Brisbane talking to her friend's girlfriend one night, when the girl pointed to the healed slashes running up her arm. Whitney hadn't even noticed them in the dim light.

The girl told her she'd suffered from an eating disorder as a teenager and had cut 'Don't Eat' into her flesh. She knew Whitney was a tattoo apprentice; could she cover the scars with a tattoo? "I'd never covered scars before so I said I'd give it my best shot."

Whitney etched a black ink bouquet of native Australian flowers across the pale zig zags.

The way the tattoo made her feel, it was like she was wearing armour on top of her scars."

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Whatsapp Whitney Develle in the reception area of Garage Ink - an all female tattoo artist studio.

"Now the reaction she gets... 'where did you get that tattoo, that tattoo is beautiful' instead of looking directly at her scars and judging her.

"Seeing the expression on her face and how happy it made her, I thought what a great idea to be able to do that for more people."

The Scars Project was born. Until the end of the year Whitney is offering her services for free; 1-2 days per week to cover scars with tattoos.

She's had an overwhelming response; over a thousand emails from everywhere from Indonesia to the United States.

One of the most touching emails I read was from a grandmother who had self-harmed earlier in life... she said that her grandson would touch her scars and say 'Nanny, ouchy' and when I read that I just broke down. She's definitely on the list."

Whitney has been picking through the emails to try and narrow down who she can help. Which is hard and heartbreaking. Some people's scars are still too fresh, others have healed as raised keloid scars which can't always be tattooed over.

Once Whitney received an email from a mother in the US who had her daughter's scars treated with laser to reduce the keloid scarring, and then tattooed.

"It's really hard to go through the emails and tell one person 'y'know you're more deserving that this person'. Because they're all deserving. But I had to narrow down the emails that touched me the most. The people you wouldn't be able to walk past without seeing the scars that they had."

So far Whitney has tattooed seven self-harm survivors (eight by this Friday). Those she isn't able to tattoo for free are offered a heavily discounted price.

You can read all the stories from The Scars Project here. Here are a couple.

Skip Instagram Post FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. A photo posted by Whitney Develle (@whitneydevelle) on Apr 1, 2016 at 3:54pm PDT

My name is Brianna.

At the age 12 I began cutting. I am 29 this month and haven't harmed myself in at least 4 years. It began when I started high school and continued into my adult life. I was diagnosed with clinical depression at the age 16 and was told I would most likely have to be medicated for life.

In my early 20s I suffered through a domestic violent relationship in which he ended up sentenced to 4 years jail. I suffered terribly with anxiety upon his release, but have taught myself new coping methods to help me deal, because life's not suppose to be easy.

You have to want to help yourself before anyone else can help you! My years of suffering are not something to be ashamed of neither are the scars left behind. They have shaped me into the person I am today.

Exercise is the BEST free medication you can try! Support is always bigger than the disease!!



Skip Instagram Post FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. A photo posted by Whitney Develle (@whitneydevelle) on Apr 1, 2016 at 2:23pm PDT

Anonymous.

How did it get to the point where you could physically harm yourself? A question asked many times, eyes looking at my scars, judgement felt from the age of 16. NOT Are you okay? Do you need help? What's wrong?

After many years of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, hospital admission, attempted suicide, I didn't see much of life. I didn't want life.

Why have I chosen to cover my scars at the age of 28? It's one part of my life I regret, scarring my body.

Tell someone how you feel if you feel that bad that you can physically harm yourself, tell someone. There's people that will not judge you! You are stronger than you believe!

***

For Whitney, the project has taught her a lot about what survivors of self-harm go through.

"Society needs to take a good hard look at how they're treating people who have self-harmed. The people I've reached out to are people who have self-harmed in the past, they haven't done it for years, they're now going on to be paramedics or nurses or teachers and they don't like the way they're being looked at.

Nobody should feel like a public museum for people to ridicule."

If this story has brought up issues for you there's always someone you can talk to at Lifeline on 13 11 14. You might also find this fact sheet helpful.

If you want to help, Whitney asks that you donate to a mental health charity like Beyond Blue or the Black Dog Institute, or, if you're a tattoo artist, consider joining The Scars Project.