BREAST CANCER SURVIVORS TURNED NIPPLE TATTOO ARTISTS!
When women with breast cancer undergo a mastectomy, they’re often left confused about the future of their bodies. Even after reconstructive surgery, the journey is not yet complete. These two cancer survivors are giving others hope with their amazing work
Two women help other breast cancer patients feel good about their bodies again
Tanya Swiegers-Loots Restore Dermapigmentation
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, then 40-yearold Tanya Swiegers-Loots was no stranger to the disease: her sister had been diagnosed four years prior at 37, and carried the BRCA1 gene, a genetic mutation that indicates an increased risk of breast cancer.
Tanya, an artist by trade, was diagnosed after one of her biggest projects. ‘I was working on a solo exhibition that took all my time and energy. I became aware of a lump in my breast but kept thinking, “I must get this exhibition out of the way. I can’t focus on anything else right now,” and didn’t think about it any further.’ Once the exhibition was over, at her husband Francois’s urging, she went to see a doctor.
She was sent for a mammogram, which showed no sign of trouble, followed by an ultrasound
and a biopsy – which ultimately confirmed the lump was cancerous. Her doctor also advised Tanya to get tested for the BRCA1 gene. If she had it, he recommended a full bilateral mastectomy. She tested positive for the gene. ‘From there it was an “easy-hard” decision,’ she says. ‘We decided that if my breasts are programmed to cause me trouble, it would be best to remove everything. But nothing can really prepare you for the shock and trauma of it all.’
Having shared in her sister’s journey, Tanya felt decidedly more prepared. ‘It must be difficult for someone who’s never had anything to do with cancer before. They give you figures and statistics, and you have to make decisions on the spot about things you don’t know much about – it’s completely overwhelming.
‘At first, you just get carried along with all the things you have no control over, then, when everything settles – it hits you’. Tanya says her own dark period was particularly humbling. ‘We make these plans in our lives, then something like this happens and you realise how vulnerable you are. Everything can change in the blink of an eye.
‘The trauma of losing my breasts and looking in a mirror… It didn’t matter how people tried to spin it or how many times they told me it would be okay, it wasn’t okay to me. Nothing could make it okay when I stood in front of that mirror thinking, “What have they done to me? I feel mutilated, I look mutilated, I never want to look at myself again.”’
During this period of seeming hopelessness Tanya took her future into her own hands. ‘I realised that I will always fear the cancer coming back – how would I predict it? But how do you live a meaningful life without fear having the upper hand? It’s hard to be honest about that, but fear was a big issue for me. The moment you realise there is no way to calculate this, you change your mindset and consciously decide that you won’t allow fear to rule your life.’
Tanya began researching breast reconstruction and noticed that women abroad were having nipples tattooed onto their breasts, with remarkable results. She contacted tattoo artists but none could provide her with a comprehensive portfolio – she wanted to see healed results. ‘Then it clicked – I’m an artist, and my painting style is realism. I taught adults to paint realism for four years. And if you’re going to recreate someone’s areola and nipple, then it might as well be realistic. When that idea came to me, I couldn’t think about anything else – it was keeping me up at night. So I put my art career on hold and focused on this.’
Tanya now works from her studio in her hometown of Worcester, where she says her life has become enriched in ways she can’t fully describe. After completing a course in tattooing, she now inks beautifully realistic nipples and areolae onto her clients’ breasts with the use of ink approved by the US Food & Drug Administration. The reaction from women she tattoos has made her job more fulfilling than selling any artwork could make her feel, she says.
Tanya’s background in art equipped her to work with accuracy. ‘You can’t separate this work from art – it’s just a different medium, a different technique, and you have to work hard to perfect it. You must understand scar tissue and composition. Breast reconstruction often isn’t symmetrical, and if radiation was done on one breast, the skin will be different. Even if the breasts aren’t completely symmetrical, you can get visual balance with good composition because the eye is drawn to the areola rather than the small imperfections. Much of the time I’m creating an illusion so that when a client looks at herself, she looks
normal, familiar – not foreign and alien any more.’
Tanya has a great working relationship with several cosmetic surgeons, who often refer their patients to her for tattoos. The satisfaction of the surgeon who did the reconstruction is as important to her as the happiness of her patients, as her work complements theirs.
Tanya stresses that, with cancer comes a long journey of being labelled as a ‘warrior’ and a ‘fighter’, and that women often don’t get the opportunity to be vulnerable and talk about their true thoughts and feelings. ‘I put effort into creating a particular environment in my rooms: when you enter, you don’t feel as if you’re in a medical environment. It’s colourful and homey. I don’t want my client to feel that it’s another medical procedure: “It’s invasive, I don’t have control, someone is going to take something from me.” That’s why I have a consultation beforehand to let them know that they have control.
‘My next mission is to get medical aid schemes to cover these procedures.’