Montreal Gazette

Shop offers free tattoos to cover mastectomy scars

- BRIANA TOMKINSON

Joy Rodgers has never had a tattoo, and never really wanted one. But when she heard that a tattoo artist in Vaudreuil-Dorion was offering a free tattoo to “pretty up” the scars left by her double mastectomy and reconstruc­tive surgery, she leaped at the chance. “I was never opposed to tattoos but I never had anything that was important enough to me to make me want to get one,” said Rodgers, who lives in Côte-Saint-Luc. “But this is not like any normal tattoo. It has more meaning behind it, more significan­ce.” Rodgers, a school nurse and a mother of two young children, was diagnosed with breast cancer one year ago. After six months of chemothera­py, the tumour had disappeare­d, but because Rodgers is a carrier of a gene mutation that increases the odds of developing breast cancer, she opted for a double mastectomy to reduce the risk of recurrence. Although friends and family have made well-intentione­d comments about her new looks and her “warrior scars,” Rodgers said she feels self-conscious about the scars on her chest and rib cage. “The new boobs don’t feel like normal boobs. I have to wear different bras, for example, with no underwire. It doesn’t feel the same,” said Rodgers. “The scars are there. They are raw. They aren’t my favourite thing to look at. The scars remind me of the pain.” Rodgers was one of the first to jump on a post tattoo artist Jeff Wiet shared on Facebook last week offering a free mastectomy tattoo at Expression­s Body Piercing & Tattoos, which Wiet co-owns with his wife. Within days of posting the offer, Wiet had four bookings and a waiting list of 12, and was considerin­g an ongoing pro bono program for mastectomy tattoo clients to accommodat­e the demand. For Wiet, offering the free mastectomy tattoo was his way of giving back to the community. He is an experience­d tattoo artist, and has been ranked among the best in Montreal. The Concordia University graphic design graduate once even tattooed Angelina Jolie. He has done a few mastectomy tattoos in the past, which Wiet said felt very rewarding because the women were so happy afterward. The idea of offering a free session came to him when he came across a charity called p.ink, which connects breast cancer survivors with tattoo artists who have experience with mastectomy tattoos. “I love giving back, but donating to a charity, you just don’t know where your money is going. Being directly involved in something is more fulfilling,” Wiet said. Mastectomy tattoos are designed to camouflage surgery scars. Wiet said the process isn’t much different than a regular tattoo, however the tattoo artist does need to be more careful when going over scar tissue because it is not as resilient as regular skin. He recommends waiting up to a year after surgery to ensure full healing before tattooing over scars. “You just have to give it enough time to heal, especially with operations that are as invasive as this,” Wiet said. For Lisa Braidwood, who was first diagnosed with cancer 12 years ago and had one breast removed two years later, the scars left by the surgery are a daily reminder of the physical pain and emotional roller coaster she went through. “Every day when I get dressed, I see that I don’t look like everybody else,” she said. “It’s a reminder of pain. To offer this, it’s healing through beauty. it takes away the pain to have something beautiful put on the reconstruc­ted area.” Braidwood, who lives in Hudson, said she had been considerin­g a mastectomy tattoo for some time and had never come across an offer like this before in the OffIsland area. “I was overcome with how generous an offer it was,” she said. “To offer such a beautiful gesture to women who have clearly gone through so much pain, it’s wonderful.”

 ?? ALLEN McINNIS ?? Jeff Wiet, owner of Expression­s Tattoos in Vaudreuil-Dorion, has offered to tattoo women who have undergone a mastectomy.
ALLEN McINNIS Jeff Wiet, owner of Expression­s Tattoos in Vaudreuil-Dorion, has offered to tattoo women who have undergone a mastectomy.

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