Tattoo Briefs

In 2023, stage 3 breast cancer took my right breast. I had a mastectomy and I survived. My chest now carries a scar that tells a story of everything I fought through. I want a tattoo that doesn't hide that scar — it honours it. It reclaims that space as mine. It says: cancer took my breast but it did not take me.

I have lived so much violence. My hands have been raised in defence, clenched in fear, and closed in pain. But fists are power — and I need mine to remind me that power is for more than just punching. These hands have survived. These hands have held children, built a life, and kept going when everything said stop. I want both hands tattooed to transform what violence tried to make them into something that tells a different story.

My right thigh already carries 'God Mother' and the drama/comedy masks — my identity, my pride, my role in other people's lives. My left thigh is completely bare. I want it to carry strength. Not just the word — the feeling. The kind of strength that gets you through chemo. The kind that makes you stand up after 8 years of being knocked down. The kind that lets you look at your own body after a mastectomy and say: I am still here.

My alleged perpetrator's name is tattooed on my shoulder. Eight years of extreme domestic violence. That name is on my skin and I need it gone — not removed, transformed. I need an artist brave enough and skilled enough to take something toxic and make it into something beautiful. This is the most meaningful cover-up of my life. This is reclamation. This is taking back the last piece of my body that still carries his mark.