Naomi Coleman said she was exhausted but relieved to be heading home after she was arrested at the main international airport on Monday and sent to a jail and a deportation centre.
The 37-year-old had been planning a holiday on the majority Buddhist island when she was detained over the tattoo on her upper right arm which Sri Lankan authorities found offensive.
"I have been treated very badly. I am exhausted," Coleman told AFP as she waited to board a Sri Lankan Airlines flight to London.
"I just want to go home," said Coleman, a mental health nurse from Coventry.
Coleman has told AFP that she feared being raped while in Negombo prison near the airport after a male guard made lewd gestures indicating that he wanted to have sex with her.
"I was subject to sexual harassment," she said.
"I did not feel safe."
A female guard at Negombo also demanded a bribe to avoid undergoing a "thorough" body search, she said. Coleman spent one night in the prison before being transferred to a