The pictures show just how far his transformation has gone. Before the tattoos, surgery, implants, and scarification, Loffredo looked like a very different person from the one millions now know online.
Before that, he was a clean-cut security guard from Montpellier with a more conventional look. Old images show him with a neat appearance, a muscular build, and none of the extreme features now tied to his name.
Looking at him today, it is hard to connect those two versions of the same person.
How Black Alien looks now
Loffredo, now 35, has taken on one of the most extreme body modification projects ever shared with the public.
Most of his body has been covered in black ink, including his eyeballs. He has also had part of his nose removed and his tongue split, giving it a forked, snake-like look.
His transformation has gone even further than tattoos. Loffredo has had his ears removed, his upper lip altered, several fingers amputated, and reptilian-style implants placed across his head and arms.
That kind of work sits far beyond a normal tattoo session. It also shows why people compare his transformation with other extreme blackout tattoo projects, where the process can involve pain, healing problems, and a look that cannot be undone in a simple way.
Put simply, Loffredo no longer looks anything like the person he used to be.
What Anthony Loffredo looked like before
In the Channel 4 documentary I Transformed Myself Into An Alien, filmmaker Arthur Bruel spent time with Loffredo to look at the person behind the Black Alien image.
During filming, Loffredo showed Bruel an old photograph of himself from before the project began.
The photo showed him looking muscular and clean-shaven while wearing a fitted red polo shirt, standing with his arms crossed.
“But you were a very good-looking guy,” the filmmaker said.
Loffredo did not disagree with him.
But Loffredo explained that looking good to other people was not the same as feeling at home in his own body. He said he had been happy in some ways, but still did not feel fully like himself.
“But I’m the same person,” he added. “Same heart.”
Why he began changing his body
Loffredo has said the Black Alien Project began with a major realization while he was working as a security guard in his mid-twenties.
At that point, he felt the life he was living no longer matched the one he wanted for himself.
“I had a click when I was a security guard,” he told French paper Midi Libre back in 2017.
That decision marked a clean break from the path he had been on. It also set him on the road toward a body project that would later make him known across the world.
He has often described his body as unfinished work. For him, the changes are not only about shock value or attention; he has said he wants his outer appearance to match how he feels inside.
That is why the old photos hit so hard for many viewers. They show that Loffredo did not start from a place of trying to fix a public flaw, but from a private need to look like the person he felt he was.
How the transformation changed his daily life
Loffredo has been clear that the transformation has affected his normal life in a serious way, especially when it comes to finding work.
During an appearance on the Spanish podcast Club 113, he said: “I can’t find a job. There’s lots of negative stuff.”
He has also described strangers screaming, staring, or even running away when they see him in public.
His look has also caused strain with some relatives. He has said only his mother, brother, and sister remain supportive of the choices he has made.
He has not pretended the physical side is risk-free either. “Yeah, I play with my health,” he said.
That comment gives a clearer sense of how he sees the project. Loffredo knows the choices carry a cost, but he has often treated his body as the place where his art and identity meet.
Why he said he was stopping the project
In late 2023, Loffredo told his Instagram followers that he was pausing the Black Alien Project.
He said the project had ‘lost its meaning’ and that the worldwide attention around it had become hard to handle.
At the time, he wrote that he no longer wanted to remove, add, or alter anything else on his body. Instead, he said he planned only to finish covering himself in black ink.
Loffredo later returned with new facial scarification work, suggesting his relationship with body modification was still not settled.
He has also discussed the possibility of having a leg amputated from the knee down, while admitting that removing a healthy limb is ‘something really hard’.
Because he has made similar comments before and then returned to new work, many followers are unsure whether this latest stop will be permanent.
How people have reacted to Black Alien
The reaction to Loffredo has always been split.
Some people see his transformation as a bold form of self-expression and praise him for pushing his body into a shape that feels right to him.
Others cannot understand the choice at all, especially when old photos appear and show how different he looked before the project began.
Another viewer said they could not imagine making the same choices, but felt Loffredo came across as kind and comfortable with himself.
Other reactions have been far harsher. Comments under his Instagram posts often move between curiosity, confusion, fascination, and open hostility.
“You can’t judge someone,” he said in the documentary.
“No one knows what’s inside someone’s head, why they’re doing that.”
‘Dr Evil’ body modification artist Brendan McCarthy made headlines in the UK after being prosecuted for carrying out procedures including ear and nipple removal. Another man who covered 90% of his body in black ink went as far as having his genitals removed because they interfered with his ‘look’.
Even so, Loffredo remains one of the most high-profile examples of someone who, by his own admission, was once a ‘very good-looking guy’ and still chose to leave that version of himself behind.
