Kimberley Vlaeminck, the girl who claimed her face was tattooed with 56 stars while she slept, has confessed to making up the incredulous story. The 18-year-old Belgian girl insisted she requested 3 stars tattooed on her face, fell asleep during the needle jabbing procedure and woke up with a veritable constellation. Vlaeminck then blamed the tattoo artist Rouslan Toumaniantz for misunderstanding her request and threatened to sue for $20k, the cost of the laser tattoo removal. Last week she said, “It is terrible for me. I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak.”

Now the self-loathing tattoo enthusiast has admitted she was fully awake while Toumaniantz inked her face, saying, “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them, but when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the that the tattooist mad made a mistake.”

Is the story of Kimberley Vlaeminck’s star tattooed face a hoax? The 18-year-old Belgian girl supposedly fell asleep while her face was being tattooed with 3 stars and woke up with a constellation of 56 instead. Now she’s suing Romanian tattoo artist Rouslan Toumaniantz for $14,000, the cost of laser surgery to remove her naptime mistake.

In addition to the dubious claim that she slept while the sensitive nerves of her face were being prodded with a needle, conspiracy theorists point to other facts they say suggest the whole thing is one big publicity stunt.

Among the few media outlets to interview the starlet is Belgian radio station MNM, who’s advertising agency, Famous, is behind the Kimberlizer. A French newspaper says the website, which allows visitors to digitally place 56 stars on their face via webcam, was opened in April, well before the story happened. Additionally, theorists point out that MNM’ s logo is a star, just like the ones covering Kimberley Vlaeminck.

Photo by Peter Deconinck/AFP and Daily Mail