Model died after being given painkillers for 'blackout' tattoo in St Petersburg, Russia - tattooist arrested

Victim Leya Chernova, 24, from St Petersburg, Russia, had commissioned a 'blackwork' inking to cover one entire leg to blot out previous tattoos.

But she was so scared of the pain, local media reported on November 1, she asked the tattoo artist, named only as Svetlana in Russian media, to jab her with a local anaesthetic.

The tattooist, who had no medical training, dosed her with four full ampules of Novocaine in ten injections during the July session, reports local media. But almost immediately Leya suffered a dramatic allergic reaction to the drug and began to shake and foam at the mouth.

While Svetlana called paramedics, Leya's lips began to turn blue and her eyes were rolling back into her head before she was rushed to hospital and fell into a coma. She died, reports local media, two months later without ever recovering consciousness.

Now after an autopsy revealed she had died of anaphylactic shock caused by a reaction to the anaesthetic, the tattoo artist is facing up to six years in prison. Astonishingly in court documents, Svetlana admitted she had simply guessed how much anaesthetic to give Leya and had no idea what to do if it went wrong.

She told police: "I calculated the dosage by eye. Injections were made in the hip area on the right leg. I thought [it] was normal to tolerate an anaesthetic. I remember how even before the introduction of the drug, she said that she had taken some antibiotics, but said: 'Nothing will go wrong with mixing the drugs'."

But her horrified mum, not named in local media, later said Leya knew she was allergic to some drugs. She said: "She was aware that she has had allergic reactions to some medications since childhood, including the exact drug used for the injections. It was written in her children's medical record."

Prosecutors say Svetlana has admitted to providing a medical treatment she was not qualified to give and will appear at a court hearing next month (December).

Expert medic Dr Janelidze Vyacheslav Afonchikov told Russian media: "It was illegal. It is important that such an injection is made only by a doctor in a fully equipped room, an ambulance or in a hospital. These tattoo artists are not allowed to do anything."

Story: NewsX