The Girl With the Breast Cancer Tattoo

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.


I sent an excited e-mail to the P.INK team and almost immediately heard back from them: I was going to be a P.INK DAY mastectomy scar tattoo recipient!

So, picture this: about a week and a half ago my husband and I are standing in Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one of the city's most renowned tattoo shops. We are surrounded by all of the new friends we made at a meet and greet the night before: the P.INK team, fellow survivors and several of the best tattoo artists in the country. And Roxx, the insanely talented and super lovely owner of 2Spirit Tattoo in San Francisco, has miraculously captured a very personal and meaningful image from my breast cancer experience in the tattoo design she has created for me.

We were the only ones actually from New York. Everyone from the P.INK team to the survivors to the tattooers had traveled some distance to make this day a reality.

What a once-in-a-lifetime kind of day! Everyone involved in P.INK DAY went above and beyond to ensure that all of us survivors felt comfortable and taken care of the entire way, before, during and after the big event. My husband and I are so moved and so impressed by what Personal Ink is doing that we hope we can remain involved in the future to help get more P.INK DAYS off the ground.

According to the Personal Ink Pinterest page, "P.INK provides tattoo inspirations, ideas, and artist info to breast cancer survivors." But really, they are doing so much more. To learn more about P.INK DAY and Molly Ortwein, the inspiration for Personal Ink and sister-in-law of founder Noel Franus, click here. 

Two days after P.INK DAY I learned that my experience of how breast cancer impacted my career had been included in an article on Levo League, a social networking and advice site for young professional women.

And just today I've learned that I was also featured in the 2013 survivor stories on Good Enough Mother.

What a month it has been. I NEVER EVER EVER saw myself as a girl with breast implants and a tattoo. And I've always been pretty conservative and introverted. Yet here I am, implants, tattoo and telling my story so that other women affected by breast cancer can know about all the wonderful resources available to them! Never say never.

Love, Diane 


Image credit: Personal Ink Pinterest Page