When Anthony Loffredo walks down the sidewalk, people gasp, cross the street or stop and stare. Uber drivers turn him away. Restaurants refuse to serve him.
He can’t get an interview, let alone a job, and it took a year before the Mexican government issued him an ID card.
That’s because the 35-year-old has ditched his former life as a “very sexy guy” who went clubbing to pursue his extreme goal of becoming a “black alien”.
His nose has been amputated, his ears have been cut off, his eyes and skin have been tattooed black and two of his fingers have been removed. Demonic symbols have also been burned into his flesh and horns have been implanted under his skin.
Anthony Loffredo from France has dedicated his life to transforming his handsome appearance into that of a black alien (shown right in August 2023).
Mr. Loffredo is pictured above before his transformation (left) and after countless surgeries. He is part of the extreme body modification community.
Mr Loffredo, originally from France, says he has had more surgeries than he can remember.
But the internet sensation says he’s only 65 percent of the way there. He also plans to amputate one leg and replace it with a biomechanical one.
He embarked on his journey at the age of 26, after deciding he was unhappy with his appearance and wanted to undergo surgeries to look like his true self.
“Yes, I was happy, but not in the right body,” she told Channel 4 in an episode aired last year. “It wasn’t my body, my real body.”
Talking about Club 113 PodcastHe added: ‘I started this project because it’s something that really interests me.
‘I’m fascinated, I’m fascinated by everything, the human body.
‘(My look is inspired by) a little bit of everything, because nobody knows what’s out there.’
He began his transformation without telling his parents, who were initially surprised by the change, but later supported him.
She added: ‘I went to his house on Christmas Day, the first 15 minutes they looked at me strangely, but well, after that everything was fine.
‘They were probably a little sad, but since I was little, my mother always allowed me to do whatever I wanted.’
However, the surprised reactions of many have not stopped her from finding love.
Last December, it was revealed that he was dating model and tattoo and body modification enthusiast Melina Shakur.
Mr. Loffredo has undergone countless procedures, including the amputation of his nose, ears and two fingers (shown above).
He shared this picture of himself, which also shows the implants in his arms. He was planning to amputate one of his legs, but that has now been put on hold.
Pictured above is him before the procedures. He used to work as a security guard at a nightclub, before deciding at age 26 that he wanted to undergo the surgeries.
Mr. Loffredo is pictured above before and after his transformation.
The two revealed their relationship in a video posted online, which Loffredo revealed with the caption saying she was his “girlfriend.”
They have since posted explicit videos of themselves kissing and showing off their forked tongues.
Mr. Loffredo is part of the extreme body modification community, or those who have voluntary, unconventional alterations with little social acceptance.
These often require specialized surgery and can be irreversible, and Mr. Loffredo must travel to other countries to get them, because they are illegal in his country.
They involve receiving general anesthesia in clandestine clinics and shady tattoo shops.
Other famous members of the community include Texas-based dragon lady Tiamat Legion Medusa, who made international headlines in 2019 after undergoing body modifications to become a genderless reptile.
In another case, Scotsman Tom Leppard tattooed spots on 99.2 percent of his body to make him look like a leopard. He died in 2016 at the age of 80.
But the black alien may now have doubts about his transformation.
The last part of the alien modifications (the leg amputation) seems to have been delayed since the relationship began.
In January, she revealed that she did not want to undergo any more procedures and said she did not regret the changes, but that she now wanted to do something new.
“Right now I’m going to focus on something real,” he said, “not on how to live life.”
She shared this image online in January with the caption: “Same, all black.”
Mr Loffredo said he had stopped receiving further applications because the project had lost all meaning and he now wanted to do something else.
In the image above, Mr. Loffreddo is seen undergoing the procedure to amputate his fingers. It was not performed by doctors in a medical facility.
In a February Instagram post, she wrote the caption: “Sometimes dreams can’t come true so we started using photo editing.”
And in another post from April, she said: “I turned into a weird, ugly creature, but I enjoyed it.”
The couple last posted a video together in May of this year, where they appeared to be discussing removing some of their tattoos.
The first procedure she had was a forked tongue, before dozens of other operations followed.
She also had implants placed in her arms and head, her teeth dyed blue and incisions made on her face.
He reveals his transformation online regularly, and his Instagram account alone has 1.3 million followers.
His decision to stop the procedures has coincided with the start of a relationship with tattoo enthusiast Melina Shakur.
Online theories suggest that Melina, pictured above with him, may have had a role in stopping the black alien project.
Many of her videos receive negative comments, including those who say she has a “mental illness,” “childhood trauma,” or say “dude, no one is a fan.”
But through it all, he says his parents have remained supportive, even if they were a little surprised by his initial transformation.
His mother speaks to him almost every day, she told Channel 4 last year, but his father has now died of cancer.
