Breast cancer survivors show strength with tattoos

Cancer not only took Dana Kasse Donofree's breasts, it marred her body with permanent reminders of pain and loss.

"I didn't want to look in the mirror every day and see the scars," she says. "I wanted to see something beautiful."

So like a growing number of breast cancer survivors and their families, the 33-year-old Philadelphia woman decided to cover her scars — and reclaim power over her body — with tattoos.

"It's like they've been in a dark room forever and they step out into the light," says Noel Franus of P.ink, an initiative that connects survivors with tattoo artists. "They feel liberated…This is the first time they are able to take back control, take back the personal property breast cancer stole."

Anthony Dragun, a radiation oncologist for KentuckyOne Health, says he's noticed the trend. Patients are getting inked on arms, shoulders or scars, he says, and many "think of it as a badge of honor, like people in the military after a tour of duty."

Donofree's unwelcome battle began when doctors diagnosed an aggressive cancer in her right breast in 2010 and she needed a double mastectomy, six rounds of chemotherapy and treatment with the drug Herceptin.

A year after her diagnosis, she got her first survivor tattoo — a huge, flowing "tree of life" that begins on her back and extends across her chest, covering her mastectomy scars and mimicking the shape of a bra. She also got a tattoo on her arm showing her journey through breast cancer, with birds symbolizing her and her husband and intricate designs representing her quest for spirituality.

And last year, she got a lotus flower to symbolize rebirth and spiritual awakening. This one covers the scar made by the port that once delivered medicine into her body.

"For me, it was about expressing myself in a way that made me feel good," says Donofree, founder of a company called AnaOno Intimates, which sells lingerie for women undergoing cancer treatment.

Dentist Peg Anderson Rankin, a breast cancer survivor who lives near Cleveland, views her tattoos as symbols of the bond that links all cancer patients — and the empowerment many draw from the experience.

Rankin, 60, was one of at least five family members to develop the disease. Her sister and sister-in-law also had breast cancer, and both parents died of pancreatic cancer. Rankin found her disease through a mammogram in 2012 and underwent a lumpectomy, six rounds of chemo and Herceptin treatment.

She got a tattoo on her arm and another around her port scar, both showing combination pink and purple ribbons for breast and pancreatic cancer. Her port scar is also emblazoned with the date of her abnormal mammogram — "the day my world changed" — and her arm tattoo includes four words: "No one fights alone."

At the tattoo studio, the artist realized Rankin had never been inked before and warned: "'Darling, this going to hurt, you know.'

"I know. I can handle pain," she replied. "I've been through it.'"

Such personal pain was the inspiration for Franus to launch P.ink at the advertising agency where he used to work, Crispin Porter and Bogusky. His sister-in-law wanted a tattoo after surviving breast cancer, and he realized there was no place for her and others to browse them. So he and some colleagues developed a directory of artists known to have worked with women who have had mastectomies. The initiative also includes a fundraising effort to help survivors fund tattoos from known artists, and annual P.ink days in several locations, where artists provide free tattoos to survivors.

Franus says he's seen all sorts of designs, with florals perhaps the most popular because they flow well over irregular scars. David Honaker, a tattoo artist at Imperial Tattoos in Louisville, says the traditional pink ribbon is the most common design he creates for survivors and families. Dragun says he often sees ribbons turning into butterflies or fairies.

Dragun says tattoos are generally safe for survivors as long as they are done by reputable artists. He advises women to talk to their doctors first, but says it's generally fine to get tattoos on places like shoulders and wrists as soon as radiation treatment is over, and suggests waiting six months past treatment before getting a tattoo on a scar.

Tammy Roby of Louisville got her tattoo before she developed breast cancer. Roby, 53, joined her daughter and niece in honoring her late sister with a breast cancer ribbon turning into a butterfly. A year later, she had a mammogram that revealed her own disease, and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. Genetic testing showed that she and her daughter, Brianna Roby, had the BRCA2 "breast cancer gene."

While the gene unites them in fear, Brianna Roby says the tattoos link them in hope and strength.

The gene "chose us," she says. "This is something we chose."