Breast cancer survivors ‘feel beautiful again’ with tattoos from Oakville business

Denise O’Connell believed she was helping a friend who had breast cancer and had undergone a mastectomy.

What the Oakville business owner didn’t realize, at first, was that what she was doing could help so many through a tough time in their lives.

“When she underwent a reconstruction, it turned out she had a tummy scar that was very similar to mine,” said O’Connell, the founder of TuckTats, who had a large stomach scar herself from a different medical procedure. “They took the tissue from her tummy, and they built a breast.

“She was loving our abdominal tattoos, and she said, ‘You know, I think it would really help people to have tattoos for breast reconstruction and mastectomies too. There are a lot of people in that community who get permanent tattoos, but obviously, permanent tattoos aren’t for everybody. Particularly for people who have undergone surgery in that area. The skin can be delicate.”

People who have been through those procedures are very concerned about what they put into their bodies.

“What my friend really liked about it was, that we were already using medical grade inks and adhesives, so there was a safety factor there,” said O’Connell. “Where people didn’t have to be worried about what they were putting in their bodies.”

TuckTats designs and sells temporary tattoos that cover or adorn surgical scars, namely abdominal and breast scars from mastectomies, and reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries. Their line for mastectomies and breast reconstructions was launched in 2016.

It has developed a huge following among breast cancer survivors and previvors (Survivors of a predisposition to cancer. People living with an inherited mutation who have never been diagnosed with cancer).

“I don’t think I had any idea in the beginning how much body positivity matters to this specific group of people,” said O’Connell, hoping her story will draw attention to October being Breast Cancer Month. “If you can imagine, they have their body, and their body image, rocked by a terrible, terrible disease and most of them are just looking for something to make them feel good again, to make them feel normal again and the tattoos might be a small part of that.”

The tattoos are manufactured in North America from medical-grade inks and adhesive and are safe and non-toxic. The tattoos are “quickly and easily” applied and removed. Waterproofed, they last up to seven days, even in the sun, salt, and chlorine.

O’Connell has heard from her customers how much of a difference getting tattoos can make for their self-esteem and confidence.

“They can look at themselves and see something beautiful again,” said O’Connell, who donates 10 percent of the proceeds from her breast cancer tattoos to a U.S.-based organization called The Breasties, focused on creating a survivor and previvor community and support for people who have dealt with cancer. “Since we’ve started with, particularly the breast line, that’s what we’ve heard from people. We’ve literally heard that they cry when they put them on because they just felt like themselves again for a temporary period.

“Obviously, that makes us feel really, really (good). Probably what started as a business, has become a maybe more of a mission.”

O’Connell has also been moving her business more and more into gender-affirming top surgeries and wanting to help the trans community.

She says some of them want to take off their breasts not necessarily because they want to feel more masculine, but they want to feel like more themselves without breasts.

“I was shocked to learn that in the top surgery community, it’s not about necessarily going from feminine to masculine, it might be more of a non-binary situation where somebody just feels like those aren’t them,” said O’Connell. “Having breasts isn’t them.

“So, that’s why we decided to move into that space and really we just found a place to promote body positivity wherever we can with this business.”

TuckTats won a grant of $20,000 from Desjardins for their gender-affirming top tattoos. The hope is those will be in place and ready to be applied by January 2025.

“I think we’re in a world right now which is very divisive, particularly around people who are LGB2Q+ rights,” said O’Connell. “I think that community feels very under siege right now, and if there’s one thing, I can say that I wanted to do with this business is really again just to make people feel good about themselves, the decisions that they made and just let their inner-selves glow whatever that looks like.”

O’Connell says the fact that the tattoos aren’t permanent and can easily be removed is another positive factor she hears from her clients.

“For a lot of those breast cancer patients, they don’t want to do anything to necessarily modify their body, because they worry that down the road they may have to have another surgery,” she said. “They may have to deal with that again, so a lot of them appreciate the temporary way that they can put it on and feel like themselves, at least for a period of time, and use it when they really want to feel that way.”

O’Connell understands that tattoos aren’t for everyone, and she says that’s OK.

“If you don’t want it, you can just take it off,” she said. “It’s so easy to put on and take off. There are also some people that, you know what, tattoos aren’t for them. They’re very proud of their scars and that’s OK too. For them, I say no problem if we’re not for you. That’s OK too.

“For some people, they just want that little piece of body art that makes them go, ‘Hmm, this is amazing. This looks good on me. This gives me some colour. This gives me a reason to be proud. This gives me confidence.’”

O’Connell feels like she’s found a purpose in life. Whatever difference she can make for those going through a difficult time in their lives and are just looking to feel a bit better, is where this mission has taken her.

“We go through life, and we wonder what our legacy is going to be,” she said. “I can’t say for sure if this is necessarily it, but I definitely have found purpose in my life and there’s no shortage of ‘thankyous’ that come my way from people who are going through this.

“I know it’s not going to cure cancer. I know it’s just a small part of people’s journeys through this, but if I can make a small impact on somebody going through this, I’m happy.”