Mastectomy Tattoos: An Emerging Alternative for Reclaiming Self

Recent discourses within breast cancer and gendered studies literature suggest some women are challenging postmastectomy bodies as abject bodies. Tattooing is an emerging body project in contemporary society that can offer women who live disembodied from their postmastectomized body an alternative. We consider embodied health movements, a type of social movement, to explore how acquiring meaningful tattoo art over a mastectomized site can been seen as challenging hegemonic, gendered discourses of the female breast and patriarchal ideals of beauty, post mastectomy. As part of emancipatory practices, tattooed bodies have historically been used to challenge dominant discourses related to identity and is currently evolving into practices of self-expression, healing, and transformation. As an emerging phenomenon among women, it is important for nurses to understand the prevalence and role of tattoos more broadly, and the possible means for women to embody healing and transformation post mastectomy.