CLEVELAND — In early October, Voodoo Monkey Tattoo in Ohio City closed its doors to the public for a day, providing a private tattoo experience for a cause.
For years, the tattoo shop has participated in P.ink Day, when tattoo shops across the continent provide mastectomy tattoos, free of charge, to breast cancer survivors.
According to the program’s website, P.ink is “dedicated to empowering women to reclaim their bodies after mastectomies.” Shannon Osborne, a local leader for P.ink Day, has had her own experience with breast cancer.
“Before I ever heard about P.ink, I was a breast cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in 2016 at the age of 38. I had chemo, I had a double mastectomy, I had radiation. I had a year of what's called targeted therapy, and then five years of an oral medication,” Osborne said. “And after that experience, I just - so much had changed in my life, and I didn't look in the mirror anymore, and that was hard.”
Osborne decided to get a mastectomy tattoo, and saw the impact it had on her life.
“That really helped me see myself in a better light,” she said. “I wasn't afraid to look in the mirror anymore. I felt good about myself again.”
So in 2019 when she stumbled upon an organization called P.ink calling for local leaders for Cleveland to help guide other women through getting a mastectomy tattoo, she immediately applied. Now, she’s been involved for three years.
“It's really nice for me to see them every year in the same place I was when I got mine and sort of help them through that,” she said. Osborne gets to know the women leading up to the tattoos, and on the day, brings them to breakfast together, then stays with them through the tattoo process.
One of the tattoo recipients this year was Lauren Sloan of North Royalton. She was diagnosed in 2019, undergoing months of chemotherapy, a single mastectomy, radiation, and two reconstruction surgeries.
“Nothing about the breast cancer experience is fun or empowering. Nothing is really your choice. So you kind of have to go through all of those steps that are pretty hard to go through, and it's things that are happening to you,” Sloan said. “What I really love about this is it's something that I get to choose.”
Sloan said she was originally planning to get a nipple areola tattoo, but after seeing the photos from previous P.ink Days, and the different designs involved, she wanted to participate. Sloan was one of a handful of women from both Ohio and Michigan who received tattoos at Voodoo Monkey that day.
“I'm here with other women that are doing the same thing together,” she said. “It'll be a fun experience and I get to decide what that is going to look like from now on.”
Osborne said that sense of community can be important for those who’ve been impacted by breast cancer.
“I think in the breast cancer community overall, that connection is really important for a lot of survivors,” Osborne said. “It's just really refreshing to talk to someone who understands how you feel and has been through the same thing.”
For Dave Stalter, owner of Voodoo Monkey Tattoo, this day is one his team looks forward to every year.
“It's an honor to do this,” he said. “We feel privileged that we were selected to do this event, and we're doing our best to make sure that everybody is fulfilled and elated with what they got.”
He and his artists work with the recipients to create a design for their tattoos, making edits and adjustments to ensure each recipient is comfortable with the process.
“Any kind of surgeries that had been performed or any kind of reconstruction we work around, we work around scar tissue and we do it specifically to the client's wants and needs,” he said.
Each woman had to wait until the completion of her tattoo to see the finished product in a grand reveal moment. Each work of art a symbol of strength, and a visual representation of a way forward.
“It's empowering, it really is,” Sloan said. “For a long time I was missing that sense of confidence in myself, and this is the start of me taking it back.”