Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the world, accounting for 12.5% of all new cases each year.
In 2022, 670,000 people died from breast cancer worldwide. It is also the leading cause of death from tumors in women in Argentina. It is estimated that there are more than 19,000 new cases per year, representing 16.8% of the total incidence of cancer in the country.
One of the most widely used resources to prevent the death of a woman from breast cancer is a surgical procedure called mastectomy, which is nothing more than the partial or total removal of a breast so that the tumor does not spread to the rest of the body. In other words, it is removing a breast to preserve a life.
Although this is not the standard procedure today due to the advancement of medicine and medical technologies (it is only done in cases of last resort), for years it was the radical solution to a problem that had death at the end of the road.
At the same time, once they had overcome the health problem, cosmetic medicine was able to implant prostheses in these women so that they could once again have breasts where their original ones were. However, this branch of medicine was unable to replicate two important parts of the breast: the nipple and the areola, which is the dark-coloured, grainy part of the skin that surrounds the nipple.
Photo: Mauricio Rios
But ingenuity did its thing once again and a technique was born to replace these two body parts: it involves recreating the areola and the nipple through the art of tattooing; a technique that creates a flat drawing, but which at first glance appears in three dimensions.
Around the world, hundreds of tattoo artists have incorporated this technique in a charitable manner, performing these jobs for free; and now this can also be done in Gualeguaychú. The local artist Juan Santos, better known as Santos Tatoo, performs this type of work free of charge to any woman who requests it. They just have to make an appointment and go to his studio.
“We are waiting for all those who want to have the work done, but also for those who have doubts about it. They can come to see me and I will gladly explain the entire procedure to them and show them work that has been done so they can see how it can look on them and help them decide what they want. Tattooing the areola and nipple takes about two hours. And I know very well that in those two hours people open up, talk, tell about their daily life and also about the reasons why they do what they do,” Santos explained to Now ElDia.
The truth is that this is not the only charitable initiative that Santos was the spearhead of. One of the first was a charity festival to benefit Antonella González, the little girl who suffered from chronic myeloid leukemia and who, despite receiving a bone marrow transplant, died in 2017. But before the sad end, the artist called on his colleagues and local musicians and held a festival where all the money raised was used to help with Anto’s treatment. He repeated this type of charitable action when he was invited by Susana Olivera from “Donar en vida”, and since then he has tried to help wherever he can. However, as time went by, his commitment changed.
“At first I wanted to help, but I didn’t want to get involved because it hurt me. With charity events like Antonella’s, I couldn’t help but be affected. I have two children, and all that has repercussions. Later I understood that I could help from my place. I’m not Mr. Miracle, but my job has a bit to do with getting involved. There are people who spend hours with me for a tattoo, and it’s inevitable that we talk. Then there are cases of people who ask to get a name with two wings. I never ask, but most of the time they tell me it’s for a baby who died, and I can’t ignore that, and in that time people open up and tell, and I always listen. When they finish they tell you that it’s beautiful and they start crying. The only thing I can do is listen and try to do a nice job. I really like helping with my work,” he stressed.
Feeling complete
Tattoos are often seen as decorative luxuries, but they can also be therapeutic. As explained above, in this case, ink reaches where surgery cannot, because it affects or tries to heal the soul and self-esteem of women who have undergone a mastectomy. In this way, breast cancer survivors are able to redefine the disease and close that stage by seeing their nipples and areolas reconstructed.
This is reflected in the story of Rebeca Del Carmen, a lawyer and breast cancer survivor. During Holy Week 2019, she felt a lump in her breast. When she went for her annual gynecological check-up, her doctor recommended that she have an ultrasound and mammogram due to the suspicion of the small lump.
Photo: Mauricio Rios
The tests gave the worst diagnosis: an advanced tumor in her left breast, and after more than 15 chemotherapy sessions she underwent a mastectomy. It was only at the end of the pandemic that she was able to make an appointment with a plastic surgeon to undergo reconstruction. A silicone prosthesis now occupies the left side of her breast, but the silicone comes without a nipple.
“It’s like you look in the mirror and something is missing. My husband never said anything to me, he always made me feel beautiful, but I am the one who feels incomplete. I am missing something that was mine and that I feel I had to sacrifice for a greater good, which is to stay alive. I do not regret having a breast removed. For my children and my family, I would have accepted having much more removed. However, the feeling of being incomplete prevails,” she said about the effects she suffers today from the mastectomy. Rebeca is one of the women who is considering the option of a tattoo. She said that she did some research on the issue, but the doubts continue. It never crossed her mind to get a tattoo, but she considers that in this case it is something different, it is not for an aesthetic reason but rather a spiritual and internal one. In this context, she does not rule out getting a tattoo of her missing nipple.
The vision of medicine and healing tattoos
“Having a mastectomy on someone must feel like a kind of mutilation, but with the added bonus that it was done to save a life. The feeling is basically that, of feeling mutilated. For a woman, the absence of a breast is not a minor thing because it is part of her appearance. Without a doubt, it is a lot of suffering,” she explained to Now TheDay for his part the local oncologist Franco Ramello.
“Fortunately, medicine has advanced today and the removal of the entire breast is becoming less common, which is extremely important. It is done less and less because with new drugs and immunotherapies, the aim is to reduce the tumor to a minimum before resorting to surgery. However, there are cases in which mastectomies are still performed, but when there is no other option,” the doctor added.
The truth is that advances in medicine are always celebrated, and the spiritual cures that healing tattoos can generate follow the same path. In fact, it is not only women with mastectomies who resort to this art to improve their self-esteem.
“I have the case of a person who suffered a burn on a large part of his right shoulder. He had never had a tattoo in his life, and he came to see me to find out what could be done because it made him feel very bad to see that scar,” revealed Santos. “After talking and clearing up his doubts, we began a job that took several sessions, and when he saw the finished drawing he thanked me very excitedly. He had found exactly what he had come to look for,” he shared.
The truth is that a missing nipple, a scar that impresses both friends and strangers, a blow to self-esteem that can mortify the present of the person who carries that “stigma” now finds an outlet, an alternative, an incentive in the art of tattooing. And especially now for women who had to sacrifice one or both breasts to stay alive. Today, reconstructive surgeries and charity tattoos give a second chance to look in the mirror again without suffering personal dramas again.
