Happily Never After: Disney Princesses Show That Anyone Can Be A Victim Of Abuse

They're the women we watched growing up... But as we've never seen them before. In a series of powerful portraits, the Disney Princesses we know so well are shown bloodied and bruised - as victims of domestic violence.

It makes for uneasy viewing: the collection, named 'Happily Never After', was created by artist Saint Hoax to highlight the brutal and indiscriminate truth about domestic abuse. Each character, depicted with visible injuries, is seen alongside the strapline 'When did he stop treating you like a princess?'. They might be cartoons, but the collection shows in plain view what most victims try desperately to hide, and - crucially - that anyone, in any situation (including fictional, too-good-to-be-true, happily-ever-after Disney Princesses we perceive so ideally) can be a victim of abuse.

The pictures tell a story that, even in relationships which appear healthy and loving, under the surface there maybe something all the more sinister lurking. But perhaps their most important message of all is that it's never too late to put an end to abuse.

The artist describes the series as "an awareness campaign targeting any girl / woman who has been subject to domestic violence. The aim of the poster series is to encourage victims to report their cases in order for the authorities to prevent it from happening again."

See the rest of the portraits in the gallery above, and tell us what you think...