Inking a new story after breast cancer

Eight women share how post-treatment tattoo art helped them reclaim their bodies, express their identities, and find emotional healing. Whether restoring their natural appearance post-mastectomy through realistic 3D nipple tattoos, commemorating the closing of a chapter while moving forward into the next with intention, or redefining their physical and emotional scars through art, what connects them is their act of expressing agency over their experience healing from breast cancer.  

Photos by Stephanie Ramones/Contigo Photography 

Shot on location at The Sauler Institute, Exton, Pennsylvania, and M&M Tattooing, Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Early in her pregnancy at age 30, Amanda Harris felt a lump in her breast. While coping with a miscarriage of that pregnancy, she realized a few weeks later that the lump was still there. She credits her lost baby with saving her life, as she was diagnosed with stage II triple-positive breast cancer soon after. Looking to her future as a mom and wanting the option to breastfeed, Amanda chose a single mastectomy with reconstruction from tissue in her abdomen. Losing her breast left her wondering who this new version of herself was, but she realized she didn’t want to try to restore something that had been lost.  

Moving forward, to her, meant a fine-line breast tattoo that gave her back a sense of identity after a long 16 months of treatment. “Being able to choose to get this tattoo felt like the first time since cancer that I really was taking ownership of my body,” she says. She went on to get additional tattoos in memory of her three pregnancy losses and to show her personality through floral tattoo art. And her future focus has carried her through to today, once again expecting a child and in the second trimester of a healthy pregnancy.  

When she went in for a diagnostic mammogram in 2018, Jeannine Hinnant wasn’t worried because she’d been there before. Having lost her mom to breast cancer and as a carrier of the RAD4 genetic mutation, she’d been under the care of a breast team since her late 30s and had many screening and diagnostic mammograms before. But this time, everything was different. Things moved fast, and she was diagnosed with stage III triple-negative inflammatory breast cancer. 

After nine long months of chemo, radiation, and surgeries, she found the scars from her surgery a constant reminder. She felt detached from her sexuality as a result of the loss of sensation in her breasts, but she found bold floral tattoo designs connecting to her sensuality. “I’m always one who colored outside the lines. I had nipples for a long time. When I looked at those designs, it brought back my sense of femininity,” Jeannine says. Her colorful floral chest tattoos brought her a greater sense of confidence and symbolized a rebirth. 

When Michele Frigoletto was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer at age 51, her gut told her to opt for a double mastectomy. Her instinct proved right, as post-surgical testing found cancer in her other breast as well. She went with her intuition once again to feel whole after reconstruction by getting realistic 3D nipple tattoos to restore the appearance of her breasts.

For Michele, a natural appearance marked the end of her reconstruction journey, when she could go on living her life after breast cancer. She didn’t want to be reminded of cancer every time she stepped out of the shower. “Cancer wasn’t going to take everything from me,” she recalls. Despite her metastatic recurrence in 2023, she plans her days to be filled with joy, including time with her four children and four grandchildren. “I want to show my kids what tough looks like, because life is tough. And you can be tough, and you can also feel all the feelings.” 

With a young 6-year-old son, schoolteacher Rachel Beck did her best to keep things light for him during her treatment for stage III estrogen-positive breast cancer in 2017. “It was just a fun thing we did one weekend — shave mom’s head,” she recalls. Rachel wasn’t thinking ahead about how she might look at the end of treatment — she was focused on staying alive for her child. She chose to delay her breast reconstruction until the end of her summer break the following year to give herself time with her son at the Jersey shore without any restrictions on enjoying the ocean.  

But after her implant surgery, she still felt she lost a huge part of her identity. For almost a year, she felt she looked terrible. When she finally got 3D tattoos at The Sauler Institute, it felt like she was embarking on a new life after treatment. She even sent pictures to her closest girlfriends to celebrate. “It was life-changing to have some of that confidence back,” she says. But even though the nipple tattoos looked fantastic, Rachel started to think about some of the imperfections from surgery like loose and damaged skin. Newly single, she wanted to have even more confidence as she started her post-treatment life. Working with an artist in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, she chose a decorative cherry blossom design to camouflage her skin changes. “You go from wanting to hide, and then, after these tattoos, it makes you feel beautiful again.” As Rachel started a new life in many ways, this symbol of regeneration helped her to feel prettier and sexier — and to just feel happy.  

Six days after her 25th birthday, Dani Bennov was shocked to find out she had stage III, triple-positive breast cancer. As a young woman undergoing a double mastectomy, reconstruction, radiation, and chemotherapy, she also was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease that caused rapid weight gain and loss that led to loose skin. Dani had to cope with a vastly different body. Since she already had experience with tattooing, Dani felt drawn to cover the remnants of her traumatic experience — loose skin, her scar from her chemotherapy port, surgical scars — with botanical tattoo art. Getting her tattoo allowed her to gain her confidence back after the breast sizes became so different. 

After a long search for a tattoo artist with experience working on scarred skin, Dani found Michael Langdale at Andromeda Tattoo. They embarked on a three-year process to cover Dani’s chest, shoulders, and upper arms with peonies, poppies, and tulips. “It makes me feel really, really badass. And it’s helped me reclaim my body again.” 

When Ivy Johnson was diagnosed with breast cancer, it wasn’t much of a surprise. After her younger sister was diagnosed at age 31, Ivy found out that she and her six sisters carried a CHEK2 mutation — an inherited gene change that comes with a higher risk for breast cancer. Because of the close monitoring she got, Ivy’s breast cancer was caught at stage 0. Grateful to have the chance to reduce her risk of recurrence, she opted for a double mastectomy, including removing her nipple.

She felt confident saying yes to this risk-reducing option because her surgeon connected her to a trusted tattoo provider, Mandy Sauler at The Sauler Institute, who could restore the appearance of her nipple using 3D, realistic nipple tattoos. While Ivy carries the emotional loss of her sister to breast cancer, she remains grateful that she and her surviving sisters can be role models for others on how to take care of their health and thrive.  

Theresa had a really challenging recovery from her mastectomy following her second bout with breast cancer in 2018. At the time, managing post-surgery complications and radiation–damaged skin, she was just focused on getting through that moment. But as time went on, she didn’t see herself the same way. After her recovery, she wanted to see herself differently. 

“Tattoos are art, and I didn’t understand that until I got mine. And art heals,” she says. She chose peonies, whose many layers of petals remind her of the many layers of the breast cancer journey, to cover her reconstructed right breast. Theresa’s husband and daughters, who are Chinese, are also represented in the artwork. The Chinese characters for courage honor their role as critical supports to her while she was in treatment and recovery.   

Rebecca’s stage II diagnosis triggered a watershed of revelations about a family history with the disease: Her grandmother, her aunt, and three great-aunts had also had breast cancer. Following her treatment, Rebecca turned to a familiar form of self-expression, tattoos, to signify how she thought about who she had become. Her interpretation of the phoenix — metaphorically rising from the ashes — also references the traditional Japanese art form of kintsugi, where broken objects are repaired with precious metals to highlight the beauty and resilience of imperfection. Rebecca included golden cracks in the body of the mythical bird on her forearm, a metaphor for her transformation along the breast cancer journey: “The scars show that you have a story and a history, and they make you stronger and more beautiful, too.”