Marked Magazine Vol. 1

Page 18

The Fight for Her Beauty - From Embarrassment to Empowerment

Nina Ruberto’s tattooed piece features a floral design, a seahorse, rosary, and breast cancer symbol - all of which mean something special to her. (Photo courtesy Nina Ruberto)

How one woman’s survival story allowed mastectomy where her breasts were reconstructed. During this procedure, the skin from the nipher to find true beauty in her life through ple, areola, and original biopsy scar are removed. tears, pain, and permanent ink By KASY PERTAB

A beautiful tattooed floral piece featuring a seahorse and rosary sits on Nina Ruberto’s body in a place that used to cause her pain every time she looked at it. Now, she looks at it with admiration and acceptance. Ruberto was living in Thunder Bay in 2012 when she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, two days after she turned 40. Her first step was to have a lumpectomy, a surgical procedure where a portion of breast tissue is removed. After that, she underwent intensive chemotherapy. “I did end up losing all my hair, my eyebrows, my eyelashes, everything,” Ruberto said. “It was such a long and tiring process.” She then had to have a skin-sparing double

In Ruberto’s case, however, her surgeons used the fat tissue from her stomach to replace the breast tissue. This tissue was also used to create 3D nipples that were tattooed on. The surgery took about 12 hours and left a large scar that stretched from Ruberto’s left hip to her right. At first, she assumed that she would be proud of her mark, but that wasn’t the case. “I would wear a bikini on a beach, and I really thought I was going to be rocking it. I wanted to say, ‘Hey, I’m a breast cancer survivor and I’m wearing it proudly,’” Ruberto said. “But after the 100th person asked me if I had a tummy tuck, it became so uncomfortable for me. It became a horrible reminder of my breast cancer.” After the mastectomy, Ruberto also had to undergo radiation therapy. When her year-long struggle was over, she decided she had to do something about


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