Nikki Black was only 23 years old when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. But this LA-based writer and comedian didn’t lose hope and underwent mastectomy in June 2013. In the process she lost her nipples and parts of her breasts. To embrace her new identity Nikki got floral tattoos where her nipples were.
In an interview with Huffington Post she said, “When you have breast cancer, you lose control of your body in so many ways. I literally lost my breasts, lost feeling in parts of my chest, didn’t even get to keep my nipples, had to deal with a different type of pain every day and on top of that, it’s an extremely sexualised disease. I had guys asking me what size I was planning on getting, telling me that they would miss the boobs I had. I had somebody tell me I could probably do fetish porn after I recovered.”
“Getting the tattoos for me was a way of taking back control of my body,” Black said. “I didn’t want my pre-cancer body back, but I wanted the body I have to be mine. So many people had put their mark on it and I wanted to reclaim it,” she added.
During her cancer treatment, she thought of turning the surgery scars into works of art. In the interview, she further shares that she worked with Holly Fehnet off The Gilded Lily Design to create a meaningful design, incorporating elements of her astrological sign (Pisces) and the koi pond in her mother’s backyard where she spent time meditating between cancer treatments.
Nikki said “The tattooing was like therapy, a surgery for the soul.”
Image courtesy: Nikki Black
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