Last month I learned that an organization called Personal Ink (P.INK) was organizing an event to provide 10 breast cancer survivors with tattoos to cover or enhance their mastectomy scars. Now, I had spent the past 3 years considering getting a mastectomy tattoo to encapsulate and honor all that my husband and I had gone through during my breast cancer journey. I wanted to have something I could keep with me forever to remind me of not only the bad things but also all the good things that came of our experience. I had gotten the idea from a book I read (and re-read) before each of my two surgeries. My doctor had offered nipple reconstruction (creating a nipple out of the skin on the breast area) and/or nipple tattooing (coloring the area with permanent ink to create the appearance of a nipple). This just did not resonate with me. But when I read Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy by Geralyn Lucas, I felt I understood her decision when, at the end of the memoir, Geralyn got a tattoo near her mastectomy scar.
P.INK DAY would take place in Brooklyn, New York (where I live) on October 21, 2013 -- 3 years to the day my doctor called to confirm that cancerous cells had been found in my breast tissue. Just days before learning of the event I was thinking this month felt right for getting my tattoo. The whole thing sounded too good to be true. If it was true, it was meant to be.
