TODAY is World Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day!

Today is World Ovarian Cancer Day! Share these five key facts with your friends.

 1. All women are at risk of ovarian cancer
2. Awareness of the early warning signs of the disease could save lives
3. Diagnosis at an early stage vastly improves a woman’s chance of survival
4. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage....
5. Many women mistakenly believe the cervical smear test (Pap test) will detect ovarian cancer

 For more information visit http://ovariancancerday.org/

World Ovarian Cancer Day

We all have women in our lives who we love and cherish: our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our friends. Every woman in the world is at risk of developing ovarian cancer, the most serious gynecologic cancer.

P.INK Day 2014 Will be in MD!!!

I have been DYING to post this information, but I needed more things confirmed before I posted it.  P.INK has allowed each participant the option to host a P.INK Day in their location for 2014.  We will all host on 10.10.14. 

The MD/DC P.INK Day 2014 will be hosted at American Tattoo in Knoxville MD!  Shop owner Tiffiny Kaetzel is one of our artists for the day.  We are seeking at least 5 more artists who are willing to donate 1-6 hours of time on 10.10.14 for this campaign.  If you are an EXPERIENCED artist in mastectomy tattooing and interested, please send your name and how we can contact you to Tiffiny.

In addition we need at least 5 more survivors who are interested in a mastectomy tattoo.  You will need medical clearance to participate.  You can have anything tattoo'd; nipples, flowers, birds, lace, whatever suites your fancy.  If you are interested, please use the contact me box on this page to shoot me your name and how I can contact you.

I can't say enough amazing sentiments about P.INK and how it is changing lives.  So, I'll let the magic makers tell their own story.  If you haven't seen this video short yet, please check it out, learn more, donate or participate. 

World Ovarian Awareness Day

P.INK Day 2013 Video Short

I never had a real sister.  But I have had amazing deep connections with other women from sorority sisters, best friends and other people fighting daily to end women's cancer.  These 9 other women are my sisters in the fight.  I love each and every one of them and admire their struggle, their strength and their success. 


Please watch and share this video about P.INK Day 2013; donate if you can.

Early Ooph for BRCA women....

http://www.ovariancancer.org/2014/02/28/early-oophorectomy-cuts-risk-of-death-in-brca-mutation-carriers/

Love new research! Oophorectomy completed in my one step radical prophylactic surgery in 2011 at 27 years old. #cheatingdeath 

Mastectomy Tattoos and P.INK

Firstly, I want to share the first installment of an article written by Skin Deep Magazine about P.INK and P.INK Day 2013.  You can see and read the first part of the article here.  My favorite part of this article is where they talk at the end about one of my P.INK sisters, Mari, and how Mari before tattoos is a different Mari than after her tattoos.  P.INK, maybe unknown to the project at the time, changed a lot of people in a lot of ways.  Mari and I would argue, I bet, that P.INK changed a lot of people for the better.

Well, friends, I believe I am a different Megan also.  Before my tattoos I didn't know if talking about a mastectomy and breasts was in some way indecent or inappropriate.  I always felt a yearning to share my story but at the same time I was cautious because I didn't want to make a situation awkward.  I didn't/don't want pity and I also didn't want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private body parts; regardless of the fact that the conversation would not be at all sexual.  I felt uncomfortable telling my colleagues of my leave of absence in order to have a mastectomy because I would not only be talking about breasts, but MY breasts.  I felt timid about sharing my story at the Relay for Life event where hundreds of my own students were in attendance.  Could I get fired for talking about my breasts? 

I went to New York for P.INK Day 2013 with the intention of not allowing pictures and never sharing my new ink with anyone but the three people in my household.  I left New York with my breasts splashed across the Internet from Huffington Post to Pinterest.  I also left and basically lifted up my shirt for anyone I felt would not call the cops on me.

I have an old friend that is a phenomenal photographer.  Christin Lewin who owns Captured by Christin, specializes in infant photography.  But I asked her if she would take some shots of my new ink so I could commemorate this year, this experience and this body.  My stomach will change and my foobs (fake boobs) will change, so I wanted pictures now so I could remember why I did this and the feeling of freedom and pride I had and have after getting P.INK'd.

Secondly, I want to share some of my photos compliments of Captured by Christin.  I love my tattoos.  I love my body and the way my scars are there and visible, as a gentle reminder, but so is an amazing amount of beauty and femininity.  Before I was tattooed I was "different".  I joked about my albino nips, but inside, it was a source of insecurity.  Now, I'm putting pictures of myself, half naked, on the Internet.  Right or wrong, the Megan before P.INK Day 2013 is very different than the Megan that come home.  And I wouldn't want it any other way.