Wanting tattoo to cover mastectomy scars

NBee

I'm 35 years old (originally diagnosed at 33), and I have Stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. I have to do chemotherapy almost weekly. I have large scars going across each breast from having a double mastectomy over a year ago and I had reconstruction done w/no nipples, just implants, about 9 months ago. I have no hair due to chemo and have to wear wigs and temporary stick on eyebrows if I want to look like my normal self. It's really hard on my self esteem. I'm married to a wonderful man but I'm self conscious of how my huge mastectomy scars look. He was with me before all the cancer stuff (I was originally diagnosed at stage 3, 5 days before our wedding in 2016) and it just feels weird to me now to be bare chested while being intimate. Therefore I usually don't want to get completely naked and it's effecting our love life. I want to feel confident again! I have noticed online that many women are getting beautiful tattoos over their mastectomy scars. I've never been a tattoo person as I don't have any tattoos, aside from my radiation dots, but I'm also not afraid of getting them. And some of these tattoos are so pretty, with floral designs in bright, happy, pretty colors! I have a high tolerance for pain. What I'm concerned about is the fact that I'm doing weekly chemotherapy and that my doctor said that I'll probably have to do chemo indefinitely. So...I wonder: are there any women with stage 4 cancer who have gotten a tattoo, or have gotten a tattoo while on chemo, and I'm wondering how things turned out for them. I don't know whether it would be too risky for me or not. I just want to cheer myself up and take control and do things that make me feel good! Any thoughts, experiences, or advice would be much appreciated! I will talk to my oncologist about it, but I feel like he'll advise against it because of risk of infection. But part of me feels wrong to take that risk (and antibiotics, if I get an infection) in order to do this one thing for myself that I really want to do.

Snowfall

I have no actual experience in this area, but an informed consent form I recently read for a clinical trial noted that patients would be given washcloths to lay over tattoos during MRIs. It might be worth talking to your MO to see if the placement of tattoos will be a problem for future monitoring.

I understand that the scars can be difficult to bear. I had a unilateral mastectomy with some complications, so no reconstruction. A friend recently went to a doctor's appointment with me and so saw the scores for the first time. She was stoic, but seeing the pain on her face reminded me of how significant they are.

NBee

Snowfall, thanks so much for your reply! That is something that I hadn't even considered and should look into.

Dianarose

I had 3-d nipples tattooed on. It helped me so much mentally. They look real! If it will make you feel better then go for it. I had no issues with infections. I did put some numbing cream on an hour before. Your MO can prescribe it for you. I’m also stage IV and I do whatever I can do look and feel normal. I didn’t know they made stick on eyebrows. Will have to google that one

illimae

Hopefully this link works. Beth Fairchild is Stage IV, a tattooist and Metavivor volunteer. She is very knowledgeable on this topic and has several podcasts here.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/91/topics/863340?page=1#post_5170726

NBee

Thanks for your reply, Dianarose! And yes, they make temporary tattoos for eyebrows. I order mine from headcovers.com but I think you can find them at most drugstores. Headcovers.com seems to be cheaper though.

NBee

Thank you, Illimae! I'll look into that!